Demon of the Void Winds (Dead)
by DeusExTranshuman
Summary: Tyrants are those that rule through Violence. Matriarchs are those that rule through nothing but influence and dropped hints. Both can hold power over the many, but only one will live long enough to truly enjoy it. A Galaxy far, far away has had a lot of Tyrants, it has withstood them all, now it has to deal with the attention of Matriarchs. Nothing will prepare them for this.
1. 1: Unfortunate Realities

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, this is purely for recreational purposes.**

 **AN: Ok, so... Here I am again. This is a rewrite of my old SW/ME Story that I decided to give a rehashing after I had a random idea and decided to give that a swing. Keep in mind that, for the ME background, I will be using the stuff produced by LogicalPremise for a number of reasons, mainly because it has more details in it, better context and is less vague than the utter Bullshit that Bioware has released. Still, hope you enjoy it. Here we go!**

 **XXX**

"Ok... Let's run through everything I know." I spoke to myself as I looked down, staring into the drain of the sink I was currently holding as either hand gripped the sides of it. I didn't look up, my eyes focused down as I tried to think.

"I went to bed last night in my room, and then I woke up here, which is in the middle of God-knows where, and I have figured out that I am most _definitely_ not dreaming this all up after having a few too many beers... Even though I don't really drink all that much." I added that last bit with a smirk as I took another breath, leaning back as I looked at myself in the mirror before me. The sight that I came to was not one I was familiar with, yet I knew it all the same, it was, after all, from a work of fiction that I was familiar with. I stood at around 183 centimetres tall with a female figure and skin that was most definitely blue rather than the cream-ish colour that I remember having before I woke up in some random apartment, looking at a clearly unfamiliar ceiling. To compound this, I was also having to deal with the fact that I seemed to know things that I never remember learning, things like higher degree-level molecular chemistry, xenobiology and other subjects that ranged far and wide. Next to that, I also seemed to have discovered that I now had to relearn how to see the world around me since I had acquired several new senses to interact with the world through. One of which made me easily able to see the live wires in the walls as silver lines along with the bio-electrical pulses through the individuals that were in the surrounding apartments, some of which were definitely not Human.

Still, as I took a breather and tried to make sense of things, I looked into the mirror again and grimaced as I looked at my own face.

The face of a motherfucking _Asari!_

 **XXX**

Ok, so... I've finished my freakout after about an hour, accidentally discovering my Biotics in the process, grieved for the fact that I'm probably never going to see my old friends and family again, and finally gotten down to the brass tacks of the matter... After trashing the room I had woken up in for the better part of three hours.

Which was fucking exhausting, let me tell you.

Along the way, I had discovered my Omni-tool, which came into existence when I found myself staring at my own arm as it appeared and gently intoned that I apparently had a new message. I can honestly say that I thought that someone was being a jackass with that when I turned to the Omni-tool in question, knowing exactly how to use it, which was freaky as all hell, before opening the message.

Yep, the person, or being, that put me here was definitely a jackass of the highest calibre, not to mention a sadistic prick that should have gotten a fucking Shotgun shoved up his ass so far that you would be able to see the muzzle at the back of his throat, before pulling the trigger, splattering his brains over the ceiling.

"Dear Chief Victim." The message read. "I am writing to inform you that, if you haven't already worked it out, you are no longer in Kansas, or wherever your home was. I have, with supreme enjoyment, decided to throw a bit of chaos into the mix of events by taking you, Chief Victim, and planting you somewhere else to cause havoc. Honestly speaking, I don't really care what you do, this was more of a 'let's see what happens if I do this' deal, no real master plan at the end of this, I'm just looking for some cheap entertainment.

And I've got to say, so far, your little break down scene was a rather good bit of Saturday night drama, which I can confirm to be completely accurate. Yes, you will probably never see your old family again in any way, shape or form. Anyway, this will be my first, last, and only message to you, hopefully this should get the ball rolling on what kind of shit that you cause, but if nothing comes from it, then it doesn't really matter, I'm sure that I can find more cheap entertainment somewhere else.

Enjoy your new life. With Kind Regards, ROB."

I stared at the screen before me for a good minute after that before I calmly closed the Omni-tool down, stood from the chair I was sitting on and walked into the middle of the room.

Right before I exploded with a mixture of Biotic power and raw emotions as I tried, and failed, to suppress the heartache at my situation being so bluntly explained to me. It lasted a minute, where the room thankfully managed to hold itself together, before I exhausted myself and fell to the ground, tears draining from my eyes as I curled up into a ball and sobbed. My mind filled with images of people that I would never see again and my heart aching for it all the while.

If I ever got my hands on the fucker that trapped me here...

Well, I honestly didn't know what I was going to do, but I doubted that it would be clean, painless or leave behind anything that could be recognised as a body, let alone a corpse.

I was going to be _thorough_...

 **XXX**

Waking up the next day, taking in the destruction of the room before sighing to myself, it wasn't a dream like I had hoped, it was very real. Looking around the room, I quickly got to moving things around, clearing the damaged bits from the ground before pilling everything up. My heart still ached and tears still flowed down my blue-skinned cheeks, but I pushed through that as I searched the apartment, a list of priorities filling my mind as I considered everything before looking at what I knew.

I knew that I was now an Asari rather than a Human Male; I knew that I now had a shit-load of information that had been dumped into my head; I knew that I had been ROB'd, but I didn't know where I was, nor did I know what I should expect in the world outside of the apartment, hence why I started searching the apartment for any tools, clues or information that might lead to me uncovering where the hell I was. During which, I managed to take a bit of time to examine myself in a bit more detail.

As I discovered before, I was an Asari that stood at 183 cenitmetres tall with the full head crests and light blue skin. Following this, I also had bright blue eyes, well proportioned features and various purple markings covering much of my face, reminding me of the markings worn by Tela Vasir in Mass Effect 2. Moving down from my face, I had looked over my body and discovered that, for one thing, I had a big pair of firm DD breasts sticking out of my chest, a thin waist and wide thighs, all covered well trained and tightly corded muscles that gave me a figure that would have left supermodels willing to sacrifice their firstborn for a chance at having something similar for a day. Also, judging by the various bits of information floating around my head, I found out that most of what Bioware had released about the Asari, in anything but the most general of terms, was nothing but utter Bullshit. It turned out that a favorite Author of mine, LogicalPremise, was actually more correct with his own little document-like works that I had read, showing more details and with a lot less bullshit.

Moving on from that, I looked at what I had found in the apartment that hadn't been utterly bashed to hell and back by my emotional meltdown, which was now at least a day ago as I looked over the haul that I had laid out on what remained of a small bed. Before me, I looked at a fully functional Hard suit that looked exactly like that of Tela Vasir's own one from Mass Effect 2, plus a collapsible, full head, and face, helmet that retracted into the neckline. Along with that, I found two M-6 Carnifex Heavy Pistols, a pair of M-12 Locust SMG, a single Mantis Sniper Rifle, an M-22 Eviscerator, and an M-96 Mattock Semi-Auto Assault Rifle, not to mention the various other bits and pieces ranging from a few dozen canisters of Medi-gel to over a dozen spare grenades, parts and other things like that. Honestly speaking, it was a rather nice hall, not to mention the fact that I also found a dozen packages of food and water that _hadn't_ been utterly destroyed by my little tantrum. Always good to have some food, though for every package I found intact, I found another three that were being used to re-paint the walls in various colours ranging from white to green to brown and even a few purples. The water bottles that had been ruptured were also rather busy forming puddles on the ground or staining the wallpaper until it looked ready to peel off on its own.

Still, the fruits of four hours of searching was rather worth it as I quickly packed most of it into a duffle bag I had made using my Omni-tool, along with digging into one such package of food because I was hungry, before I sat down and considered what to do next.

"Ok... So I've got my basic essenials covered, weapons and armor to take care of myself, plus the knowledge to use them..." I sighed as I pinched the bridge of my nose for a moment in annoyance. "That still doesn't help me all that much since I don't even know where the hell I am..."

I had already checked my Omni-tool to see if I could access anything before finding that, in fact, there was a wireless network that I might have been able to access... If the software languages were in _any_ way compatible with one another, let along the fact that it wasn't being translated into a language I recognised. Mostly it was coming up as gibberish as a screen filled with various values, letters and mathematical symbols, less than useless in other words. That left me with a few options, one of which was to try and use a Mind-meld with one of the other occupants of this apartment complex or try my luck and hope for the best. I felt like scoffing at the latter idea, a feeling of unease coming from carrying out, what was effectively, a leap of faith.

Sighing to myself once more, I quickly turned to my new senses as I looked around, looking for an apartment with a singular occupant that I might be able to get to easily as I glanced around, noting a single window as I looked out to see a dark street filled with an abyss, flying cars moving quickly within said abyss and the air filled with neon-like signs. I couldn't read any of them, but I hoped to change that soon.

Turning back to the task at hand, I closed my eyes and focused, looking around before smiling as a mental map of the world around me formed in my mind, showing me where everything was as I noted a dozen individuals around me before zooming in on one in particular. Said individual looked female from the look of it, but was currently alone in an apartment that was just ten metres to the left and two metres above my own one. From her figure, and the relative layout of her nervous system, I guessed that she was currently lying down, giving some credence to the idea that it was currently night time. I smiled at that as I quickly got moving.

Within five minutes, I had strapped the armor pieces on to my body before attaching the various weapons to the mag-clamps around the body armor, watching them fold up into place with some small amount of amusement before turning back to other matters. Calling my Omni-tool once more, I activated it's fabrication function and got to work on one more item before I was ready to leave.

It was a Trench coat, black in colour and with a zipper that could go completely up from my ankles, where the coat stopped, all the way up to the high collar that stopped just shy of the bottom of my nose, added to this was a single hood that was attached to the back of my neck. Looking outside, I could easily see that it was dark, meaning that being able to fade away into said darkness would be my only way to disappear after leaving this place, something I fully planned to do. Once the coat was fully fabricated, a process that took less than a few minutes, I put it on over my armor while only zipping it down to my waist, allowing me to be able to reach into my coat and pull out any of the weapons around my waist. With that complete, I slung my duffle bag over my shoulder before walking over to the exit of the apartment.

The door itself was mechanical, an electronic system that was supposed to cause it to open at the press of a button. However, the only problem with that was that the one I was in currently didn't have any power running through it, I couldn't see any lines of energy, so that meant that I would need to open it the 'old' fashioned way. I slight smile came over my face at that, even hidden by the hood and helmet, a slight gesture, a flare of dark blue and the door found itself being forced back, sliding along it's rails before retracting into the wall as I stepped out into the corridor beyond. Another Biotic Pull and the door was back in place and no one would be the wiser, though, not before I got a look and saw where the locking bolts on the door were, the ones on my had been removed, but it was easy to see where they were with the help of a bit of Biotics to feel where any gaps in the metal work was by applying a light Throw to all sides.

As the door slide shut, I took note of a single sign that had been attached to the door, alien symbols covering it and spelling something out, a message of one kind or another. I had no idea what it meant, but I took a quick picture with my Omni-tool before I turned and walked away, heading towards the end of the corridor where I felt a large amount of electricity flowing from.

A minute later, I soon found myself looking at a single elevator, but I saw no stairs that I could use, though I made no bones about it as I called the elevator and waited for it to come. I used my newly acquired Electro-reception to ensure the elevator was empty as it approached, feeling the electronics within the machine and the lack of any organic signature that I could make out. When the elevator arrived, I smiled when I saw it was empty before climbing in and looking at the symbols on it, seeing them arranged in four rows of fifteen before I noted one that was highlighted in a green square, I assumed that was the ground floor before I saw another one, this one illuminated by a white light. The symbol on it was the same as the one I saw on the door outside before I decided to go out on a limb and press the button directly above the one that was lit up, assuming that this would either get me to the floor I wished for, or it would take me higher.

The doors closed to the elevator and, a moment later, I felt it rise before shooting passed my target and leaving me three floors above her. I smirked at that as I pressed what I believed to be the correct floor, going back down three floors to arrive at the right place. The doors opened with a ding before I stepped out of the elevator, not bothering to look around as I had already checked that no one was present before moving along the corridor before I glanced at the door I was looking for. I smiled under my helmet as I approached the door and smiled even further when a subtle application of my Biotics forced the locking bolts to open, a moment later, the door slide open before I closed it behind me, being sure not to disturb anything as I walked through the apartment.

Looking around, the place was rather nicely decorated, a modest place, but certainly homey as I looked at it before moving on, opening a door where I found the sleeping form of my target. She was lying in a bed, alone, and I could easily make out her figure through the thin blanket, walking to the side of the bed, I reached out to begin a meld before stopping as I noticed something.

For one thing, the woman had bright green skin, for another, she had cone-like ears sticking out from either side of her head and two tail-like appendages sticking out from the back of her head. I recognised what she was rather quickly as I suddenly felt like banging my head against a wall, but resisted for the moment before I reached back out.

She was a fucking Twi'lek, leading me to conclude that I was, apparently, in the Star Wars universe.

"Great... Just fucking great..." I muttered to myself, glad that the helmet was soundproof as I continued to reach out before making contact with her skin. I saw the woman flinch slight at the temperature difference between my armored glove and her own body, but that hardly mattered.

"Embrace Eternity." I muttered, the phrase working as a kind of focus for a meld as everything seemed to disappear in a flood of sensation as I forced it under control, bringing my awareness to bear before I allowed myself to continue. I felt myself and the woman before me, I felt a connection formed and I felt the distinction between the two of us, I even felt the dull nature of her presence within the meld, dulled with unconsciousness as I noted that before moving on. I felt my lips curve slightly at the moment as I pressed forwards, slipping my own mental presence into her own mind as I moved inwards, feeling dulled thoughts and feelings spiraling around like water flowing down a drain. It was interesting to both see and experience as I followed both my own understanding and newly acquired knowledge on how to use a meld before I came to my final prize.

Information, specifically, information about the language, cultural norms and routines of what this individual went about. The reason I wanted this information was simple, it was a method of fitting in, of disguising myself in a way that would let me keep a low-profile until I wished to move openly. And that, depending on what the date was, would not be for a long time.

Finally finding what I was looking for, I grasped it, pulling a copy of that knowledge into myself, but not before leaving something behind, a single mental compulsion to ensure that my tracks were covered, to check the front door for repairs, fabricate a suitable cover story and not to reveal my involvement in the night's events. It wasn't anything special, with it disappearing once all conditions were meet, but it would get the job done, admittedly, it wasn't very subtle, but I didn't have any practice in doing this, I just knew what I wanted and focused on that.

I blinked a few times as I returned to the waking world, standing over the Twi'lek once more before I glanced around before nodding, a moment later, I opened my Omni-tool, revealing the picture of the sign on the door of the now destroyed apartment that I had been in.

Apartment undergoing renovation. Please keep out.

I smiled at that as I turned around and left the room, leaving the still sleeping being behind me as I used my Biotics to, once more, open and close the door behind me before I turned around and left, heading for the elevator so as to get out of the apartment block. As I walked, I couldn't help the smile that crawled it's way on to my face, I had all the information that I needed, now I just had to decide how to apply that information. However, the true golden nugget in it all was the date that I had found, or, more accurately, the year.

It was twenty years after the Russan Reformation, otherwise known as 980 BBY, before the battle of Yavin. I smirked at that, I was an Asari, I could live for, probably, well over a thousand years if I was careful about it, not to mention the simple fact that I had one hell of an info dump. However, I knew that information was useless without the experience to apply it and refine it, both into knowledge and skills that could be used.

Thankfully, time seemed to be on my side.

 **XXX**

Finding somewhere to hide in the deep levels of Coruscant was rather easy, once you got deep enough, the place literally turned into a rather good likeness of an abandoned ruin from some sci-fi show about something or other. Rusted metal walls were easy to spot along with dozens of creatures that lurked around. Some of which didn't mind eating people if it meant that they could get a free meal with as little work as possible.

Thankfully, I was nowhere near as deep as that, I was only 83 levels below the surface of the city-planet, but that was more than enough as it got dark down at that level easily unless the sun was shining directly down the access chutes, and you lived nearby. Mind you, that only happened for about thirty minutes each day, and only at the equator, other access points were usually lucky to get five minutes of sunshine. Honestly, I didn't care, but it was interesting stuff to be aware of, and a good way of denoting where I was and the visual identifier for when noon was. Then again, I could easily see the sun light coming through one of the massive access chutes from the surface since the new place I was using as a temporary safe house was right at the edge of the rather large hole that went down _kilometres_ into the city-planet.

The fact that it was a long way down went without saying.

Still, moving on, I considered what I should, and could, do. Darth Bane, if I remembered correctly, was already dead by this point, killed by his Apprentice, Darth Zannah, in a duel on Ambria. The next major, or known, conflict that I could remember was the Dark Jedi conflict that took place in 188 BBY to 181 BBY, a long way off. However, I had no idea about anything that would happen between then and now, meaning that I could be blindsided by what happens next just like any other person. Still, I had some advantages over normal people, one was my knowledge of a dozen fields that allowed me to act as a reasonable expert in each of said fields. Another was my Biotics and the last ability was the simple fact that I could disappear into the underworld of a given planet rather easily, the only difficult part was staying hidden since, as the only Asari in Star Wars, I was both unique and easily identifiable. I'd need to keep that in mind unless I found a method of concealing myself, I remembered that an illegal company sold something called 'Flesh Camouflage' on the Black Market, but I had my doubts as to whether it was available for purchase yet, let alone whether it had even been made yet.

I groaned as I hit the bed of the stolen apartment, a quick Meld with the owner of the entire block and I had this room for the next few days with him, a male Human, believing that it wasn't in use even if he saw me enter and leave it. The compulsion was still rather clumsy, but I thought it was better than what I had done to the other Twi'lek I had run into.

Regardless, I could plan for the future later. Right now, I wanted to sleep, spend some time going over the information that I had acquired and try to make sense of everything I had been through in the last few hours.

I fell asleep, in full armor, as soon as my back hit the bed of the apartment.

 **XXX**

 **AN: Ok, so that was chapter 1, hope you enjoyed it. Keep in mind that constructive criticism is welcome, and I will try and take feedback on board. Also, I will be posting two more chapters with this, so keep an eye out for them. Enjoy!**


	2. 2: Motherhood Approaching

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is purely for recreational purposes.**

 **XXX**

Hiding under my hood, I peered out at the world from where I stood. Turns out, getting into contact with the local black market was a lot easier than one would expect, especially on Coruscant, the fact that I had the equivalent of a dozen degrees in criminal psychology, forensics and anything else that you could care to name just made it all the easier. I had literally walked out of the apartment that I had... _Acquired_ and then walked right into the Black Market after searching for it for the better part of two hours.

Paying for the items was rather easy when one can use Biotics to help pick the pockets, not to mention my own use of subtle Mind-Melds to... _Convince_ a few of the other people wondering around the market to give me a few Credits here and there. However, I wasn't just in the Market for items like Power Cells and Droid Protocols, I was looking for skills, talents and information that I quickly absorbed with the use of further Mind-Melds before disappearing back into a crowd as I stockpiled the knowledge and skills of veteran Smugglers, Bounty Hunters, Slicers and even a few Slavers that were here for one reason or another. Honestly, one could easily consider what I was doing as Mind-Rape given that I was basically violating these people on some fundamental level, but, even with that realisation, I found myself failing to care one bit. The rather bluntly expressed message about my situation and suddenly having to question just what the hell I was, meant that any care about Mind-raping people who wouldn't even notice me doing it was minimal to non-existent, at best.

Honestly, most wouldn't even notice a Mind-meld unless I was being rather overt with it, since all it required was close proximity, but physical contact worked even better. After a bit of practice, I managed to get it to the point that I could simply brush against someone in a crowd and pick through their mind before moving on, leaving them none-the-wiser while giving me a full accounting of all their skills and tricks. It was very useful, I made a mental note to go around more Black Markets in the future and see what else I could get through that, as I had no doubt that I could pick up more than a few good tricks. Then again, I already had a fair number of skills up my sleeve after five hours of walking around, having brushed into at least a few hundred Smugglers and Bounty Hunters, even a few Mandalorians that were going around the place.

Still, things like that were of little importance as I glanced around myself, smiling as I took in the sight of the ship before me, a small freighter that was acting as an illegal passenger ship that was taking me to Nar Shaddaa for a reasonable price. I had already paid half in advance, now I just needed to get there.

"Hey lady! You coming or what?!" I heard the voice of the ship's Captain and pilot, a male Devaronian if I wasn't mistaken, then again, those horns were a bit of a dead giveaway. I simply nodded before walking up the ramp, my body still hidden under my coat along with the armor as I walked up the ramp leading to the ship.

"Ok then, the sooner we leave, the sooner we get to Nar Shaddaa... And the sooner I get paid..." I heard the Devaronian mutter that last part under his breath, I made no indication that I heard him as I walked by, heading for the cargo bay of the ship as I recognised the ship type, a HT-2200 Medium Transport by the look of it with the rather blocky appearance. Honestly, I was rather surprised by just how old some ship designs actually are, then again, I remembered how slowly tech could progress in Star Wars, I wouldn't be holding my breath for anything to advance in any major leaps.

 **XXX**

The trip itself was short, taking less than a few days to get from Coruscant to Nar Shaddaa, throughout which, I had to hit the Captain more than once to get the idiot to focus on his job as he kept trying to catch without my armor on, usually while I was taking a shower. I was more than capable enough to take out the hidden cameras that the bastard had snuck into my room for the journey, but that didn't mean that I liked having to deal with it.

I made my displeasure rather well known when the Devaronian found himself with an arm broken in six places and the shoulder of the same arm having been dislocated. For me, that was a win-win, as it got the Devaronian to mind his own fucking business, and allowed me to see the extent of what kind of knowledge I had in my head about combat. Short answer was enough to qualify for, and probably pass, any kind of test for becoming a soldier that one could think of, useful, but I questioned why I needed so much information jammed into my skull. Then again, it hardly mattered to me in the long term, I just had the information and I knew it was going to come in handy at some point in the future. One never knew what kinds of things that you could need until you needed the information for one thing or another. I fully agreed with that kind of belief and spent my time looking for anything that I believed could aid me in the centuries to come, information, parts and other things like that being chief among them.

Once I arrived on Nar Shaddaa, my first order of business was finding somewhere that I could purchase a ship both cheaply and without difficulty, a number of dealerships were located across the cityscape of the moon, some of which were rather good in that they didn't even bother checking for any kind of identification. Then again, that was even better for me since I had none to show, meaning that any vendor that 'asked no questions' was a good thing to me since I doubted that a single Asari appearing in the middle of nowhere was going to be looked at well.

Halfway to a motel I had picked out for my stay, I stopped at that thought. A _single_ Asari...

I smiled as one thing trailed along turning into another. Asari reproduced entirely through a merging of their nervous system with another, allowing for reproduction via that method, technically meaning that physical contact wasn't even needed beyond getting enough genetic material to randomise the DNA of the offspring. Not only that, but birth was rarely painful for an Asari due to the pelvis bone being hinged, making things even easier than that, but that still could be easily obtained and injected through a variety of different methods that soon flooded my mind. The only real stopping point was the fact that the ability to become Pregnant wouldn't be valid until an Asari reached the Matron stage of life, at roughly two hundred years of age. I'd need to check just how old I was with some kind of medical equipment that I'd probably be able to get from the Black Market, but, assuming that I was the right age, then that means that I could easily start spawning, for lack of a better word. The really annoying part, however, would be carrying the child for eleven months and making sure said child gets enough Eezo-laced foods, or a slurry of the stuff mixed with the various things needed for growth.

Still, that left the question of where I'd get the needed genetic information, and if I couldn't get that to carry out the methods that I could think of, then where would I get what amounted to a rape victim. Slave markets were obvious answers to those questions, then again, I could always force a deeper merging with a random stranger and get a bit of blood that way. I'd need to think about methods, but I would try the one that didn't leave me feeling like a rapist first. If only because I preferred not to think about it as such, then again, my morality was already fucked up after the shit that I'd already experienced as were my emotions since I knew that my response to that Devaronian's attempt to catch an eyeful was rather over cocked, to say the least.

I actually saw the fucker sag in relief after I had gotten off his ship, leaving just as quickly as he landed, probably to put as many light-years between the two of us, not that I minded that much.

Still, moving on, I needed time to think, plan and plot my next moves if I was, in effect, spawn an entirely new race into Star Wars.

 **XXX**

Well, turns out, I was in luck. After three weeks of working to gather all the needed medical equipment, I had finally figured out that, yes, my current body was just over three hundred years old. Yippee.

Which, in and of itself, meant that I might be capable of having children in one fashion or another, if I so chose. Truthfully, my gender identity was all over the place since, while Asari looked like they were female based on the figures of both Humans, Near-Human races and Non-Humans, they really weren't. Asari were a mono-gender race that happened to look female but didn't have anything like that in their DNA, a mate just needed to have a functioning nervous system and some form of DNA that the Asari could use as a pattern and the end result would be the same as reproduction for any other race. Still, the problem was that I, frankly, was used to being a guy and I had no idea how I really felt about this beyond the fact that I still cried myself to sleep whenever I even so much as thought about my old family. I figured that having a family of my own, no matter how fucking weird that seemed, would do me some good.

Which, in the process of studying and looking over the information for a Bonding, I had found out, rather by accident, that I didn't need to effectively mind-rape someone. The truth was that, as I mentioned, all that was needed was a nervous system and DNA, brain-dead animals were perfectly capable substitutes, not to mention having less morally and ethically ambiguity in the whole scheme of things. Yes, it could still be called animal cruelty, but I'd been around Nar Shaddaa and seen some of the animals that they sold at the Black Market and regular Market, most, if not all of them, were nasty little bastards that I really couldn't feel any sympathy for, if only because a lot of them seemed to be of the 'Big game predator' category. Though, I will happily admit that the three Vornskr that I did see were pretty damn impressive, especially given how they were watching a particular pair of brown-cloak wearing individuals that walked past the cages.

How the current owner of those things didn't notice that was something of a mystery to me, one that I really didn't want to think about all that much since I preferred to stick with facts rather than degenerate into a philosophical debate about what the Force was and was not.

Regardless, I had what I wanted out of the whole thing, especially when I figured out how to force the reaction using a number of drugs that I could easily find lying around some of the stalls in the markets of Nar Shaddaa, which I found funny since most of them were downright illegal to sell in Republic space.

I made sure to buy them in bulk.

 **XXX**

Welp... I can honestly say that I have found a new appreciation for what my mum went through when she was carrying me for nine months.

Surprisingly, my idea to use a non-sentient, brain-dead creature had actually worked better than I thought, causing an egg to be fertilized and forming into a developing child, something I was rather happy and confused about. Happy, well, because I was going to have a child, and confused because I was still having trouble with my own fucking gender identity even though I had managed to force it down to simply going with 'Asari' as an option, beyond that, I still have a very male mindset of things, even with information about Asari culture literally slammed into my skull.

Five months in and I was looking at a very well developing child as my stomach swelled as the child grew. By this point, I had already rapidly gathered and spent a large amount of Credits to get a ship, not to mention any materials that I believed would be of use. I had even gone so far as purchasing a pair of Chroon-Tan B-machines, Midwife Droids, along with a group of three 2-1B Surgical Droids and another group of four GH-7 Medical Droids, I was actually rather surprised that these Droids were even around, given how I knew that all three were around during the time of the Clone Wars. I had shrugged at them even existing, merely thinking of it as little more than them being both popular and having been upgraded as time went on to ensure they stayed in service, something I could see happening, however slowly it did happen. Along with that, I had also spent some time and bought a few other things.

My ship was a rather nice, a fully equipped and well maintained D-5 Mantis, rather surprising considering that they were more than two thousand years old, having fallen out of favor, but were still in service in some parts of the Galaxy. Not that I minded since it meant that I got a well armed ship with a decent Hyperdrive and good shields, though, I will admit that I felt that the damned thing could use a bit more ECM and ECCM. ECM and ECCM in Star Wars basically amounted to sensor and targeting jammers and relying on either visual scanners, the Mark one eyeball or detecting where a jamming field was coming from and firing roughly in the middle of that. Mostly passive stuff that you could get around if you closed distance and attacked with enough guns. Still, I had read up a bit on history and found that space battles rarely took place outside of a few million kilometres simply due to the fact that anything outside that range wasn't going to be hit accurately and would be able to dodge with arrogant ease. Most ship battles took place at 550 thousand kilometres so as to allow easier targeting and ensure that the enemy couldn't just move out of the way. I'd admit that engines on some warships were actually powerful enough to pull that off at what was considered as knife-fight ranges, usually measured in the tens of thousands of kilometres.

Anyway! Getting back on topic, I also had a few dozen Battle Droids with me, some old HK-51 Droids that were apparently still floating around, even if they were apparently a dying bread, what with most people just dismantling them for spare parts for other, equally old, Droids or just melting them and selling the raw materials. I managed to save the poor things from such a fate, giving me at least thirty of the brilliant machines to use for my own purposes, namely, guarding my ship as I had a child.

... God, that sounded weird as all hell...

 **XXX**

Ten months and counting.

One thing I was rather glad about, if for no other reason than for my sanity, was that Asari apparently didn't get hormone imbalance due to being pregnant, thus preventing them from suffering from mood swings like a pendulum. This, also, had the fun effect of making it so that I didn't accidentally crush one of the HK Droids that I had on the ship if it was being a pain in the ass, Goddess knows that I was rather doubtful of being able to find any more of them.

Also, as of two months ago, I decided to start looking into what amounted to my new/adopted culture and had started taking phrases from the Asari knowledge in my head, mostly because I was now an Asari and found it rather fitting, if nothing else. Along the way, I had also found information about Eezo, along with how to synthesize the stuff, which was very useful since I needed had needed to drink a slurry of the stuff along with various vitamins and minerals to allow the child to grow properly.

The Eezo itself was a right bitch to make, mostly because it required me to have a particle accelerator built into my ship, a miniature one that accelerated matter and smashed it together in a steady stream until you could get it to form degenerate matter before shifting the phase of the degenerate matter to the point that it actually formed Eezo. The hows and whys were well above anything I knew, though I was tempted to try and figure it out later on once I had time to spare. Honestly, the process was working fine, even if the damned thing was both slow as hell and inefficient as all hell since I was running the system off of a miniature generator that I acquired on Corellia. Still, it was better than nothing in terms of generating the stuff in usable amounts, if slowly. After a few weeks, I had fifty kilograms of the stuff, which was a lot, let me tell you, since I, for some reason known only to ROB, knew what the price of Eezo was pure gram, usually being in the several thousand Credits range, if nothing else.

And that was for the low-purity stuff that I was getting out of this piece of shit.

Still, aside from that, I had also been spending some time going over any and all information that I could, upgrading some tech, and even looking through the Holonet with a terminal. I had already upgraded my Omni-tool to allow me to access the local Holonet while also upgrading the systems to allow me to hack into Droids within a certain range. I'd spent a month making an Omni-forge system to allow me to rapidly make things I needed from raw materials, and I had even gone so far as to upgrade my weapons. Honestly, the only real change I had made to them was the inclusion of a few broken down Power cells that I had stripped from some local Blasters, resulting in more power being available to accelerate the projectiles as well as dampen the recoil since SW power cells were a lot more energy dense than the equivalent in ME tech. Same thing went for my armor, upgraded Shield capacitors to increase both my Shield Capacity and regeneration to higher levels after reconfiguring the materials in the Power cells in my Omni-forge.

Added to this was the fact that I now had both a Kinetic Barrier and a Mag-Shield, the former to block hits from kinetic weapons, melee weapons and the shockwaves from explosives while the later protected me against Plasma and Particle weapons, Lasers would still burn a hole in me, but I could use Biotic Barriers to induce a gravitational lensing effect to cause them to miss. Then again, my armor was made of a heat resistant ceramic that was interwoven with an energy dispersing material, back stopped with a layer of Omni-gel that hardened on impact to disperse the energy behind hits momentarily while also hardening to provide a quick seal if the outer layers were damaged. Medigel dispensers were also present, but I hadn't used them yet, hadn't needed to, thankfully.

Then again, I had a feeling that I might need to in the future.

 **XXX**

"Master! Keep pushing, the baby is almost there, Master!" I heard the voice of the currently active Midwife Droid speaking as I felt like glaring at the damned thing as I lay on a cleared workbench, my trousers currently half on the floor with the other half dangling from my right ankle, my pants had gone a similar way as they were on the floor. Still, I ground my teeth together, knowing that the destruction of a Droid I had paid top Credit for was not something I wanted to do, especially since I wasn't going to be able to leave this ship for quite a while to ensure that the child grew up and developed properly.

Off to the side I could see a few of the other Medical Droids I had bought working through dozens of bioscans to ensure everything was going as it was supposed to, a result of having spent long enough programming them with the particulars of Asari Biology and even longer letting them learn from copies of medical primers I had rewritten from memory. It had been useful to say the least, and I didn't doubt that it would have good effects in the future.

"Almost there, Master! Almost there! Keep pushing!" The Chooran-Tan in front of me encouraged, making me grit my teeth in my frustration as I kept forcing the child out of my gut.

"WAAAAH! WAAAH! WAAAH!" I heard as I caught a glimpse of the baby finally coming out of my gut, blue feet quickly followed by legs, a body, arms and a head as the air was filled with the sound of a baby crying out as I smiled slightly, sitting up as one of the Medical Droids quickly came over, severing the umbilical cord before clamping it shut and wrapping the baby in a spare towel that I had on hand. I smiled as I looked at the baby, happy as I was no longer alone. I had a family of my own that I could look forwards to living with. Of course, that left me with one question still left to answer.

"What shall you call her, Master?" One of the Droids said as I took the baby from the Midwife Droid, a smile still glowing on my face as I gently rocked the baby back and forth until it stopped crying and gurgled slightly. I felt something in the back of my mind twitch as I made contact with the child, but didn't pay it any mind for the time being even as I continued to rock the baby in my arms.

"... Jan'sha... Jan'sha Arteis, Daughter of Nyiss Arteis..." I offered gently as I kept rocking the baby back and forth, I smiled as I saw the little, pale blue being in my arms slowly look up at me through crinkled eyes before gurgling happily at me, reaching up with one hand as I felt it's legs move. I smiled as I offered a hand, feeling the little baby grasping a finger and using what meager strength it had to try and drag my hand closer to her, it was, quick possibly, one of the cutest things I had ever seen.

... Dear Goddess... I was a fucking mother...

Goddess help me.

 **XXX**

"MAMA!" I heard the sound of a young voice reverberating through the room as I looked up from my workbench, mainly because I had been working on clearing up a few things, maintaining my weapons and armor while I waited for one of the HK Droids to come back to the ship. I had landed the ship, my D-5 Mantis which I had named as the _Sheathed Dagger_ , on the planet of Naboo, right now though, it wasn't for anything beyond some foods and supplies, seeds, dirt and some other things since I planned to build a small hydroponics bay within the rather small hold of my ship. Then again, I was already finding a few good ways to improve that by maximizing the space available by building up, attaching things to the ceiling and welding it in place before attaching a ladder to allow me to go up and down the steps easily enough. Either that, or I just used my Biotics to move up and down the various levels.

"Yes, Little One, I'm here." I said as I turned and smiled, seeing the crawling form of the ten month old Asari child crawling along the ground before me. Jan'sha was an active baby, constantly moving around and energetic to say the least. Her face seemed to brighten as she saw I was paying attention to her, speeding up as well as she crawled closer.

"Mama! Mama!" She called out again, her first words being 'Mama' as she had termed me, I bend down and picked her up easily as I placed the young, nappy-clad baby on my lap as I did so, honestly, it was a sheer joy to have her around, something I was happy for as, for one thing, I could focus on what I gained rather than what I lost when I came to this universe. I had moved on from that, for the most part, but it was still there, the pain having been dulled, but I doubted that it would ever leave me be. Glancing down, I saw little Jan'sha giggle as my fingers held her under her arms, tickling her as she squirmed around and leaned against my bloated gut, the signs that another child was on the way being ever present as I smiled at that. I watched as, after I stopped ticking, Jan'sha started patting my stomach in quiet curiosity, I smiled at that as I picked the little baby up and rocked her in my arms.

"Careful now, Little One, that's your sister. You don't want to hit your sister." I spoke soothingly into her 'ear' as I smiled, getting a look from her as she spoke back to me.

"S'sta?" She spoke quietly as I nodded, still smiling at the cuteness of it as the little blue baby tilted her head to one side.

"Yes. Your sister, another little girl, like you, that came from Mama." I spoke calmly, a smile still on my face as I couldn't be anything but happy about having a family. The response I got was little more than a squeal of joy and happiness from the baby in my arms. It was wonderful.

 **XXX**

"Jan'sha? Can you keep an eye on your sisters? Mama is going out to get some supplies." I shouted back into the Mantis, having kept it for the better part of twenty years, where it was still in working condition and worked just as well as when I got it, mostly in no small part due to my own ability to maintain and upgrade it with any number of technologies I could think of. A moment later and I saw an Asari turn the corner, my first daughter, wearing a simply pair of dark blue jeans, boots and a white vest top. Her hands and brow were covered with oil, without a doubt having come from the jobs I had given her to check the Sublight engines and Hyperdrive to make sure they were working properly.

"No problem, Mother. When can we expect you to come back?" She questioned with a smile, her face lacking any of the tattoo-like markings that I had, except for the eyebrow-like markings that highlighted the ridges above her eyes in the same deep purple, but looking more like detailed tribal bands rather than splotches of colour. Honestly, out of all twenty of the daughters I've had, Jan'sha is both the oldest and most capable of them all, not to mention the most mature. They were all mature to one degree or another, having raised them on the Mantis where everything needed to be taken care of and kept working, all of my daughters were more than willing to put in their fair share of work, at least, after I told them about the Asari and how I was planning to 'rebuild' the our race with their help.

Not to mention that I had been teaching them a combination of Asari and Human values, more of the former than the latter, but that meant that they would listen to me as well as think of the communal whole over the individual. Of course, with the Asari cultural influence, none of my children really understood the idea of 'fair play', always wanting to stack the deck in their favor. I, naturally, approved whole heartedly.

This, naturally, meant that I taught them how to play any of the various games of chance that I knew of, thanks to my Mind-melds, along with how to cheat at them, both for a bit of fun as well as profit. Of course, this meant that any 'game night' usually revolved around who was the better cheater rather than who had the best luck. Currently, my third daughter, Larahin, was in the lead for that, having won the last six nights through various means. I was rather proud of that. Aside from that, however, I had taught my children everything I knew from as soon as they were able to understand, and retain, that information, the nature of Asari being able to link with one another often helping since it meant that information could be transferred both easily and rapidly, and I had spent about ten years with each daughter implanting as much of the more general information as I could into them. If they wanted to learn more about a given subject, I'd let them learn on their own through various methods such as the Holonet or just download the info from my own skull into their own. It came in useful, without a doubt.

"Probably won't be any longer than a few hours. Anything aside from the usual that you or the others want me to pick up?" I asked as I finished putting on my trench coat, the old coat having served me well, now having been upgraded with strips of Durasteel having been inserted between the stitches along with a lining made from Aero gel to make Blasters less than effective. As the ramp lowered, I had already grabbed one of the Swoop and Speeder bikes that I kept by the ramp, a rather nice Swoop bike that looked something like the Zephyr-G from Star Wars Episode Two. It must have been an ancient equivalent, but it was nice, fast and very stable, not to mention very capable of carrying a lot of stuff on it, mostly because I tended to bring back a lot of goods for long term.

"Nothing comes to mind, mother, though, I'll be sure to send a message if anything springs up." Jan'sha mentioned with a nod before disappearing back around a corner. I didn't doubt it, though I knew that that was only in the case of needing items. I had trained all of my girls in how to use a Blaster along with some basic self-defence techniques. Their Biotics were coming along as well, but I dared not rushing them since they would develop in their own time. For the time being, I mostly gave them the knowledge to work things out and left them to it, seeing how they developed and offering advice when needed.

I mentally smirked at that, some of the girls had already mentioned about wanting to learn more about fighting. I was half tempted to try and train them up to be Asari Commandos, if only because I could use a hand on some hunts.

 **XXX**

Du Bec, a Weequay Smuggler, was currently regretting his decisions in life as he ran for his life through the twisting streets and ever shifting crowds of Anchorhead as he glanced over his shoulder once more, panting for breath even as every instinct in his body screamed at him to keep on going. Recently, Du Bec had been hauling a load of Spice for Gardulla the Hutt, having been sent to sell it to an associate on Kessel for the Hutt before coming back with the profits to get his cut. Now, normally, the cut was more than generous and a good source of income for a Smuggler, but he was feeling rather greedy that day and felt that he could skim a little off the top and no one would notice if he did.

Unfortunately for him, someone did notice. A few days later and he suddenly found himself under the threat of Bounty Hunters looking to collect. Three million republic Credits alive, only one and a half million for his dead head on a platter, but it was enough to get the attention of every scumbag on this Maker forsaken dust-ball. Hell, he had already run into some in a local cantina that he favored, where they had shot the place up had he not had his trusty Blaster at the ready as he always did. One could never trust when things would go to hell and back, usually because of drunken idiots that didn't know their limits and seemed to think that it was a good idea to start blasting up the place when they lost one too many games of Sabacc or Pazaak. Still, as the Weequay turned a corner and sprinted down an alley way, he had his doubts that his Blaster would do him much good against the... _Thing_ that he had seen chasing after him after he left the cantina.

The Huntress.

No one knew anything about her, not her face, race or even her real name, Huntress was just a nickname that people had given her for being very good at hunting down targets that made it on to her hit list. Very few people had ever seen her work, and those that had had already passed along rumors that she was like the Jedi in one way or another. Of course, if that was the case, then he was fucked no matter how you looked at it, especially against a Bounty Hunter with at least two decades of experience under her belt.

This turned out to be far more true than the Weequay could have imagined as, after coming to a stop at the corner of one alley, he hunched over to catch his breath before looking back up into the crowd of people that were milling around. He was about to take a single step back into the crowd, to hopefully disappear into the faceless sea of beings, when he heard the sound of something shooting through the air. Du wasn't even given time to react as he felt a cold chain rapping around his torso, the back, square-shaped links pressing into his body as they pinned his arms to his side before he was tugged back into the alley, the air being forced from his lungs by the sudden acceleration.

Tumbling over himself as he hit the ground, skidding to a stop before he felt something, a boot, press against his chest, he looked up only to gulp as he saw the form of the Huntress, hidden under the iconic coat and hood that had been present since she had shown up some twenty years ago, becoming a part of her reputation even if it was not a very well known one.

"I... Uh, I don't suppose we can tal-ARGH!?" Du Bec tried to speak as to stammer out an offer to hopefully save his own skin, only for the end of the chain that bound him to wrap around his neck, tightly, and nearly crushing his windpipe. Though, if that wasn't enough of an answer, he got a solid 'No' in the form of the Huntress' boot slamming into his face before he lost all consciousness, becoming dead to the world.

He didn't doubt that he would wake up to see the fanged jaws of a Canyon Krayt Dragon right before he became it's lunch.

 **XXX**

"Come on! Stupid Goddess-damned piece of Bantha Shit!" Jan'sha screamed as she rolled out from under the sublight assembly of the _Dagger_ where she had been working to fix a bug in one of the power conduits attached to a modified capacitor. The system was rigged up by her mother as a way of quick charging the Hyperdrive with a capactor or two that would be able to dump their charge into them quickly, mostly as a way to move around fast and with as little difficulty. However, the problem with that was that the damned things often had linkage problems, usually frying the conduits after a few uses and requiring replacing. Out of the three dump capacitors that were installed in the _Dagger_ , two of them were still in working order, but the last one, which _should_ have been working, had most of the connections either fried to a crisp from accidentally releasing its charge, or they just weren't connected at all, the connections having been broken somehow.

And, if that wasn't bad enough, the computer system linked to this capacitor refused to show her the cause of the problem, and even refused to believe that anything was wrong, thinking that the damned thing was still in working order.

Jan'sha was seriously tempted to give the damned thing a Biotic kick to throw it off the ship, if only because it would have been easier to replace one capacitor than to repair this piece of shit. Then again, Jan'sha was pretty Goddess-damned sure that her mother would do just that once she got back from her trip to Anchorhead for supplies and funds, one quickly learned that Nyiss Arteis was not one to fuck with, and regularly turned anything, and anyone, that fucked with her into paste. Her sisters, and herself, were similar, having grown up for the last twenty years with her mother, being taught by her, and learning a rather general, yet highly potent, education that, by the time she had reached her fifteenth year of life, already meant that she could have gotten degrees in some subjects. Then again, her mother took advantage of the Asari ability to Meld, mostly to rapidly ensure they learned things quickly while she also spent her time training them in everything else, ranging from Biotics to hand to hand combat, Slug throwers to Mass Accelerators, Starship maintenance to Blaster maintenance. It was all covered and it was all part of what was planned.

The rebirth of the Asari.

Thinking about that, Jan'sha, even as she ground her teeth trying to adjust another bolt to take one of the dumping capacitors out of the engine assembly, couldn't help but wince slightly. Her mother had never told her and her sisters much of what happened to cause the downfall of the Asari, usually skimming over it, but they got the impressions that their mother didn't want to talk about it. Given the fact that their education included things like psychology, they knew better than to pry into sore spots, especially for family.

"Hey Jan'sha!" Said girl in question suddenly heard the overly cheerful voice of her sister calling her, surprising her greatly as her first reaction was to jump at the sound of her nineteen year old sister, Malany, calling out to her. Of course, that would have been easier, and far less painful, if she hadn't been underneath the Hyperdrive assembly, resulting in her smacking her forehead against the heavy metal plating and over thirty kilos of Capacitors before lower herself back down and wheeling out, glaring at the grinning form of her younger sister.

"Malany. I'm pretty sure you're supposed to be clearing up the Hydroponics. Why are you here?" Jan'sha asked with as much forced calm as she could, doing a very good job of not letting her want to throttle the grinning bitch show through.

"Well... I already finished all that, cleared out any dead plants, put down the new soil and watered them to ensure they grew properly. I've set up the rotations so that we should be good for food for the next few months, plus what Mum gets, that should keep us going for the better part of six, maybe seven, months. All depends on how much we eat and how quickly." Malany offered with a shrug as Jan'sha felt a vein throb in her forehead.

"That still doesn't answer my question, sister. Why. Are. You. Here?" She asked, each word getting spat out through gritted teeth.

"Oh, well, Mum always said that I needed to work on my Biotics more while she also said you needed to work on your CQC and CQB, I figured that, once your finished taking off that fucked up Capacitor, we can do some practice." Malany stated, explaining her want for practice, but still looking like she was expecting it to happen the very next moment. Jan'sha forced herself not to sigh as she pinched the bridge of her nose in much the same way their mother had done when she was frustrated by the antics of her daughters.

"Ok, fine, I'll help you, but I need to take this damn thing out first." The Older sister offered, getting frown from the younger of the too before the sound of metal tearing was heard, Malany glowing with Biotics power before looking down to see the form of a semi-intact Capacitor lying between them, coolant leaking through a number of hoses that had been violently ripped free. Glaring at her little sister, Malany didn't even bother looking even slightly guilt as she smiled.

"Does this mean you can help me now?"

It was all Jan'sha had to prevent herself from slamming her hand into her face, either that or bashing her face against the cold, soothing metal walls of the _Dagger_ , if only to stave off a headache for another few moments.

 **XXX**


	3. 3: Growing Familiy & Horizons

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is purely for recreational purposes.**

 **XXX**

"Has anyone had a chance to look into any plans for starting a settlement?" I asked as I walked out of the cockpit of the ship, having just set the ship's Hyperdrive to active as I left the current system I was in, Raxus, before heading for the interstellar void between planets. Looking around, I saw my twenty daughters, all of them fully grown by now, the oldest being over forty years old by this point while the youngest was twenty, perhaps not fully developed physically, but very mature for her age. All of them were currently sitting around the hold of the _Dagger_ doing next to nothing as some were working on projects of one kind or another.

"Honestly, mother? We've considered it but finding a planet far enough off the beaten path to settle down on will be tricky, especially one that hasn't been found by another race to colonize for ourselves." Answered Larahin, my third oldest daughter from my right. Currently, Larahin was looking over a number of medical texts that she had gotten her hands on, having hacked her way into a database and downloaded them off the Holonet, she often spent her time working the medical droids I had, mostly to learn more about the various fields of medicine and biology, with a slight hint of psychology on the side.

"Well, we could always try heading off into the Unknown Regions, not to mention we could always just disappear into Wild Space or one of the lesser explored sections of the Outer Rim, there is, after all, more than a few gaps between inhabited worlds where we could find somewhere to settle down easily enough to rebuild the Asari race." Jan'sha mentioned as she tinkered with an Omni-tool, a copy of a design that I had given to her, one that had been upgraded over the years to the current version as holographic projections danced above her arm, a Galaxy map being displayed in the middle of the room as a result. She was highlighting the unmapped areas of the Galaxy, certainly showing that there was a lot of 'dark' space between known trade routes and the Hyperspace lanes that the Galaxy knew of. I sighed at that, I knew that very few people even bothered looking beyond what they were comfortable with, Thrawn's Empire of the Hand was probably the biggest attempt to expand and explode the Unknown Regions, and I wasn't too sure how many races were encountered, but I was pretty sure it was a lot.

"I think Wild Space would be best. The Tingel arm is, for the most part, uninhabited and almost entirely unexploded except for a few of the older Hyperspace routes that are still floating around, only a few of which are even used now a days since there is virtually nothing out that way." Malany pushed forwards, getting nods from others as I smiled slightly, stepping back as I watched my daughters take amongst themselves.

"True. It's would be a lot safer than just floating around in the Unknown Regions, especially since it has been, at least partially, mapped. Means that we could get in deep before heading off the beaten path." Daughter number fifteen, Ireeme, observed to herself as others nodded.

"That still leaves us with the problem of supplies and what we do when we get there. The _Dagger_ , even with all the modifications that we've heaped on to it, is _not_ meant to be a colony all on its own, let alone carrying enough cargo to start up a colony on its own." Daughter number nine, Teluc, addressed that point as Jan'sha nodded, quickly moving through settings on her Omni-tool before another hologram appeared on it easily enough. The new hologram showed a rather new style of ship, easily modified and one that Pirates had already taken to using as ad hoc corvettes and frigates, mostly depending on how many gun turrets were added.

"An Action VI Freighter, these things have can carry up to eighty thousand metric tons of cargo and with plenty of space for the crew. Technical specs say that they take an eight person crew, but I'm pretty sure that even if we loaded the thing to bursting with supplies, materials, Droids and everything else we could think of, we'd still have enough room for all 21 of us, and a bit left over." Jan'sha stated, getting nods around as I cupped my chin in thought.

"True enough, but the problem with using one of those things is that they are capable of defending themselves as a Bantha in front of a Krayt Dragon's nest." I decided to point out a bit, speaking for the first time in a while. "If we wanted one of those things, we'd need to do all the modifications ourselves along with ensuring that the damned thing is even capable of flying."

"Meh. That ain't that much of a big deal, hell, we'd probably improve the damned thing well beyond what the producers believed was possible for their piece of shit." I smiled at the commentary of my nineteenth daughter, Sarum, as the other's chuckled at her rather blunt statement since it was rather true. The _Dagger_ was proof of that since I had my doubts there was even a single piece of the original craft left in it.

"Ok, so, that's the general area for the colony and what ship to load up with supplies taken care of, we can get Credits the same way as usual, but that still leaves us with the questions of what we do once the colony is up and running? I mean, what about the population once we get things going? Are we going to impose a _minimum_ number of births per Asari once they are able to bear them?" Jan'sha asked, I raised an eyebrow at that. Honestly, it was a good question, all things told, though it did seem a bit like the elephant in the room, as it were, since my Daughters had already discussed it multiple times already. None of them came up with a satisfying figure for how many children should be born per Asari once they were of age.

"I think we should set it high, increase the growth factor of the colony and ensure that we rebuild as quickly as possible. The sooner we get up to an appresitable population size, the better." Larahin interjected, getting a few nods around as others frowned slightly, but looked to be considering the wisdom in her words.

"What about just doing what Mum did and having the minimum set at around twenty, or higher, and go from there for a few generations?" Malany asked, getting others to look at her as she brought out her Omni-tool and projected a new image showing a screen of math. "The simple fact is that, if we each bear twenty children, or more, that means that we have a bigger base population. Say we go with that, then we're looking at a total population of 421 once their fully grown, keep going like that and we're get to 8,421. Fourth generation would be 168,421 while the fifth generation would be around 3,368,421. And it would keep on going from there."

"Fair point, sister, but that is assuming that the entire population, assuming they stick with only having twenty children and no more, if they, and we, decided to have more children to bring the Asari people back into the Universe, then we could be looking at further growth than just that." Teluc observed with a half-smile, getting a nod from Malany before she looked thoughtful at that before turning to me, having stayed in the doorway to the cockpit to observe.

"Mum, does that mean that you might have more children, giving us more sisters?" Malany asked rather bluntly, getting glares from the others, mostly because they all respected me too much to ask such a thing so... _Ineloquently_ , Malany preferred to just ask things as they were as I chuckled at the reaction.

"Maybe, Dear, but I make no promises." I teased as she smiled, Malany always enjoyed the feeling of having so many sisters, the idea of getting more, especially ones that she could treat as children, would certainly appeal to her. Then again, I wasn't going to order any of them to act as baby makers unless they wished to do so, hell, I'd already played the part, so I had my doubts about any of them deciding to complain about it, especially given the fact that I had given birth to all twenty of them.

Still, I had to admit that the idea of rapid population growth would might be useful, especially since I knew about what was coming.

 **XXX**

Laying the ground work for a new colony was, by no measure, an easy or simple task.

Honestly speaking, the easiest part of the whole thing was buying the Action VI Freighter, an already modified one that was bought from a Black Market dealer for around seven hundred and fifty thousand Credits, a rather decent price given the extent of the modifications. Namely, the original owner had added a dozen turrets on to the thing, linked them to a central Droid brain that had been taken from a lobotomized Administration Droid and armed each turret with a Quad Laser Cannon, similar to the ones on the _Millennium Falcon_. These things were powerful and rather accurate as well, definitely. The fact that the guy had used a Droid Brain from an Administration Droid meant that the damned thing was really good at running the needed math to accurately target objects moving in space. Of course, the problem was that the Droid brain could only coordinate so many turrets at a given time, out of the total 24 turrets with the ability to aim half of those in any given direction, only about six of them could be used with any degree of accuracy at a given time. Of course, we rapidly replaced the old Droid brain with a triplet of VIs designed to work together and share information, though not to the level of the Geth, to coordinate the fire between all the turrets and other weapons to ensure that there were no blind spots to take advantage of.

Still, aside from that, there was little that we could complain about. The Shields were decent and the Hyperdrive was a Class 0.7, definitely better than most commercially available Hyperdrives, not to mention the fact that the cargo space was still in one piece, allowing for much the ship to retain its function as a cargo vessel. Of course, one of the first things that me and the girls did was to ensure that all the weapons were concealable, if only to prevent harbor authorities asking too many questions. Next, we upgraded the Shield system to being above average, definitely better than the original piece of shit before we included a number of ECM and ECCM suites using the local tech, if only because it was quicker and easier than making our standard of them. Following that was a modification to the Hyperdrive, allowing for it to be converted into a Tumble Hyperdrive with a flick of a switch.

Tumble Hyperdrives, also called Tumbledrives, were an old, rather crude prototype of the modern Hyperdrive, owning it name to the unique feature that me and my Daughters were taking advantage of to find a planet to colonize. The Tumbledrive was capable of incrementing it's jumps, allowing for the jumps to be of any distance or length of time that the pilot wished for, and, when paired with a pair of specially designed VI, would allow us to travel relatively easily through unexplored space to find a new home. Sensors had been installed, along with various probe launchers, to allow us to scout ahead before deciding on which path to travel as we would be looking for an uncharted system to call our own.

Still, I had my doubts about it being difficult to find a place to call home, especially since, beyond the Corporate Sector, the Tingel arm was mostly Wild space, mostly unexplored and free to colonize as we wished. We had already planned for that, mostly deciding that making a home as far into the Tingel arm as possible would be the best idea, security through obscurity and all that. We'd spend as much time as was needed simply building a new home in whatever place we settled on before coming back to the Galaxy, though, many of my Daughters were fiercely against telling the Galaxy where we lived, possibly using something like a Hyperspace Gate or an equivalent of a Mass Relay to control travel between the Galaxy and our home. Honestly, I wasn't bothered too much by that, but I understood that security was a good idea.

If nothing else, it would make Customs and Border security rather simple since there was only one way into the system, one that we would have full control over.

 **XXX**

"Mother, we've got a list of systems that we think might be the best choices to settle. Want to have the final pick?" Jan'sha asked as she came to the bridge of the refitted _Hopeful Journey_ , the retrofitted Action IV Freighter had undergone a massive change since they had bought it from its original owners and such modifications hadn't stopped just because they had upgraded everything to a better standard. No, they all had pitched in to keep innovating and upgrading the systems while keeping it to local technologies, Mother having stated that they weren't going to upgrade it with their own tech until they started building their own ships.

Better to keep themselves hidden and not draw attention from other groups unless they were ready to act at large. Their Mother had always taught them to 'stack the deck', as it were, and not taking the time to do so, while building a suitable powerbase, was seen as the height of foolishness by all the sisters.

"Sure, pass them over." Her mother, Nyiss Arteis, replied as she looked around over her shoulder, having spent the last few hours running back to back diagnostics to ensure that the ship was still running as good as it had been a decade ago, when they had first purchased it from the markets of Nar Shaddaa. By this point, it was more habit than anything else, they knew the ship's systems backwards, forwards and inside out, they all knew that the ship would not fail anytime soon, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

A moment passed as Jan'sha passed the file to her Mother's Omni-tool as the message flashed and the file appeared around her right arm, the orange hardlight projections flashing into place before her as they displayed a total listing of fifteen planets, all of them scattered across the edges of Wild space, but near the very tips of the uncharted space. Honestly, calling it uncharted was a bit of a mistake since they had spent the better part of a decade mapping out a decent sized section of it with Probes and figuring out Hyperspace paths if they ever needed them to get back out into the Galaxy.

"So, out of them, which would you recommend?" Nyiss asked as she looked at the file before her, pictures of twenty worlds floating before her with summaries about their environments, local systems and native life all spelled out for easy reading. More details were present if one were to activate the link at the bottom of the file, but most of it was covered in the summaries. Jan'sha jumped at the sudden, and rather unexpected, question before she looked to see her mother looking over her shoulder at her, one eye still skimming over the document as she nodded at the other chair next to her. The oldest of the twenty sisters took that for what it was and took a seat next to her mother, fidgeting with her hands as she bit her lip in thought.

"... I'd have to say option seven." Jan'sha muttered quietly to herself, though still loud enough for her mother to hear as she clicked on the planet in question as the file shifted, bringing up a larger image that was as big as an Astromech to show the planet in full detail.

The planet itself was large, a radius of just over seven thousand kilometres with an average day length of about 29 hours, the planet was beautiful from orbit with vast sections of flat plat sandwiched between long beaches and cliffs leading into massive oceans, and, on the other side, large forests and jagged mountains that disappeared into the atmosphere. It was not an uncommon sight to see the clouds parting as the tops of some mountains disappeared above them, visible even over the clouds and just visible to the Probes in low orbit. Average temperature of the planet was just over 24 degrees Celsius while the planet had just under one G of gravity. Most of the planet was further covered by oceans that plateaued out before dropping sharply into abysses deep beneath the waves, the tides being held at bay by the complex mesh of Moons and asteroids around the planet with three moons that had one main moon with two more rotating around the first. Two additional asteroid belts wrapped around the planet, one made primarily of ore-rich rocks while the other was filled with fragments of frozen water and gases.

Truthfully, all of the sisters had agreed that this was the best option, but they had all submitted one idea since it was what their Mother had asked of them. This one, simply called Option Seven for the moment, was located in a small system with a young yellow star, another three planets within the uninhabitable zone of the star, closer to it than Option Seven, their surfaces constantly a burning sea of molten rock and metal. However, that presented great opportunities, especially since the planets were rich in high quality, high purity metals that may have been of use in the future, on the other side of Option Fifteen was an asteroid belt that ran around the entire system before being followed by two Gas Giants, both being several times bigger than Option Seven rich in valuable gases. It was a perfect location, helped along by the fact that it was completely untouched by any race and seemed to lay right on the very edge of the Tingel arm, the very edge of Wild Space and the Galaxy as a whole. The only real problem that the sisters could think of was the simple fact that, unless they created some kind of short cut, travelling through the mapped hyperspace routes they had made would take them weeks to return to the rest of the Galaxy, if not months.

However, that was hardly a problem at the current time as privacy and secrecy were the key points of what they wished to do.

Watching, Jan'sha looked at her mother as the older Asari's eyes glanced down the page before she finished reading all the information, absorbing it quickly into herself before she cupped her chin in thought as she returned to the original file. Glancing at each of the planets in turn, Nyiss seemed to be lost in thought for a moment before she leaned back into her chair and looked at her oldest daughter.

"Judging by what I'm seeing here, I have to agree with you, Option Seven looks like the best option for settlement." Nyiss said with a half-smile as Jan'sha nodded, her own beaming smile in place, as Nyiss started up the Nav Computer.

"I'll set course for what soon will be New Thessia, you go back to the cargo bay and tell the rest of the girls where we are going. Also, tell them to warm up the Omni-Foundries, set half of them for rapid material processing while the other half can be set to begin the construction of the items marked in the 'Initial Settlement' file I downloaded on to them." Nyiss stated as the daughter nodded once more, smile still in place as she stood from the chair just in time to see the stars flash by to announce their entry to Hyperspace.

Hopefully, things would only get easier with time, especially now that they had somewhere to call home.

 **XXX**

"Well, I think I can say it. This is the perfect location for the initial settlement!" Malany shouted as she looked around from the highland she stood on, the slightly raised ground surrounded by more flatland to the East and the South as it was backed into a Mountain range with a thin strip of forests between her location and them. On the other side was a curved coastline that, directly between the water and Malany, was a sheer cliff face that dropped some 135 metres straight down to the water, with a further drop of 68 metres before one hit the sea floor. Further along the coast, it opened up to lines of brilliant, white sand with spots of what their Mother had called 'Palm trees' sticking out from the sand every now and then.

"Agreed." Larahin commented as she looked up from her Omni-tool. "Soil samples are showing a good nutrient content in the ground, should be good for farming if we want to go that route instead of hydroponics or aeroponics. I just got a message from Jan'sha and her group as well." Malany raised an eyebrow at that.

"Oh? They were looking into scans of the local mountains for raw materials, right? What did they find?" She asked as Larahin swiped her Omni-tool, sending the file to her eleven month older sister.

"Lots of things, though, they seemed to fine large amounts of Titanium, Copper, Palladium, Platinum and Iridium, among other things. The really big catch, though, was probably this." Larahin explained as she showed an image before her. It was a picture of a massive cavern filled with glowing lights, projected back from veins of crystal that lined the walls.

"Mother's already examined the images and she said that they might be some kind of Kyber crystal, normally used by Jedi and Sith to make Lightsabers. Though, I heard her mention that they were also used to make high-quality computer processors and memory storage devices." Malany looked at that thoughtfully for a moment before she smirked.

"Did Mother mention how much those kinds of upgrades usually went for?" Malany asked innocently, getting a knowing smirk from her sister as another document appeared between the two of them, this one detailing pricings for Kyber crystal-based computer upgrades.

"Depending on the clarity, sixe and diffraction index of a specific crystal, we could be looking at anywhere from several thousand Credits to well over the tens of millions of credits. The best example I could find was one piece that was the size of my thumb, it sold for roughly nineteen million Credits and was then made into a computer processor that is used by the Republic to rapidly catalogue data for their central registers. It cost them 22 million Credits." Larahin explained as they both shared sinister smirks at what that meant. If nothing else, it meant that when they returned to the Galaxy, they would have a quick way of rapidly acquiring wealth based on the sales of these crystals alone. Checking the document again, both saw that the profit margins were there, not to mention that using Synthetic crystals, while fine for Lightsabers, would have a negative impact on performance if used in such a manner. The fact that the Jedi jealously horded such locations to obtain these crystals meant that finding enough to upgrade a number of computers was often difficult.

However, now they had a means of rapidly obtaining wealth once they returned to the Galaxy, a steady supply of such crystals would probably make a lot of people rather happy.

 **XXX**

Looking out the cockpit window of the _Hopeful Journey_ , I smiled as I saw how work was coming along on the beginnings of the colony. Mechs were working around the clock to build up the basics before moving on to other things, namely vast cities that were planned, said towers being planned to take the form of Asari towers with smooth curves and organic lines, rising high into the sky. Still, their completion was a while off as I looked out to note my daughters, all hard at work, arguing with each other over the final details of what was to happen once the initial colony was finished.

For laws, it was decided to stick with the original ones of the Asari, basically laws that meant that if one tried stealing, killing, enslaving or mind-raping another Asari, it would result in instant death. However, aliens had no such protection from these laws, mostly due to how my daughters had all agreed that the Asari should show unity with themselves, anything else was simply taking advantage of an opportunity. Likewise, they had already agreed on the final, minimum, number of children each Asari should have for the next four generations, eight hundred years, effectively. Each Asari would have to give birth to a total of forty children, I was exempt from this since my daughters had decided that, since I was their Mother, I had the final say in such things. I still wondered about setting the bar so high, but that was on them rather than me since I thought twenty was pushing it as far as it should go. That meant that, if each of those four generations only had forty children, then the total population after each generation would be, 821, 32,821, 1,312,821 and 53,412,821, respectively.

So that was going to be a population of over fifty _million_ by 60 ABY, if the math worked out correctly.

Aside from that, the girls had also be arguing over other things such as the system of government, having decided to set up a council of themselves, shamelessly called the Council of Matriarchs, with me holding the head position as the 'Queen Matriarch'. They had also chosen that, from there, each of them would take different surnames and form Houses that would each work to control a given sector of the Asari government, for instance, Jan'sha Aveyne was planning on having her House dedicated to the military in general, but specializing in the Naval aspects of it in particular, with control over the logistics, shipbuilding and command structure as a result. Malany Morus had decided to go for a more science-like, yet hands-on approach and decided to have her House dedicated to industry, with a specialty in material science to create better materials to fill various roles, not to mention dabbling in economics. Larahin Jaora, however, had surprised me when she decided to have her House dedicated to the Arts, music, painting and sculpting, along with other such things. I had asked her about that, and had found myself grinning while she gave a smug smirk.

Larahin was planning to use such things for long term cultural manipulation via a number of methods, up to and including the seduction of alien artists and altering their views to be pro-Asari via a Mind-meld. She fully planned to have the Asari stand at the top of the Galactic pecking order, and was fully willing to use all of the... _Racial traits_ that the Asari held to make it happen. I had made a note that, within a century, to expect Larahin and my Tenth daughter, Esaley T'rena, to control the Galactic markets through backroom deals and heavy use of exports that other races simply wouldn't be able to produce on their own.

Patent Protection Technologies, Fabrication Protection Technologies and very thoroughly black boxed systems would see to that. It also helped that Esalet was fully planning to ship crates of Medigel and Medical Omnigel out, with only basic instructions for the former while leaving it in the hands of Asari 'Specialists' to use the latter. She planned to build a dependency into the Galaxy that meant that they required what we would be selling rather than what they, themselves, were producing. Sure, they could easily go back to what they used before hand, but my daughters were planning to do this over a long time period, working effectively to remove competition from the Galactic stage.

Of course, this all linked back to a rather interesting phrase that I had heard one of my daughters utter: " Tyrants are those that rule through violence and intimidation, removing the 'freedoms' and 'rights' of those that he rules to ensure their compliance. Of course, this leads to the reverse; A near-universal to react violently when one believes that these 'rights' are being infringed upon, leading to resistance and open revolt in short order. It is better, I believe, to not be a Tyrant, but a manager of opinions and events, sculpting a people's beliefs and opinions to match that which you find acceptable before moving forwards, putting one's self into the spotlight before the people... _Force_ these individuals on to the seat of command. So long as the masses never see how truly chained and enslaved they are, they will not look too deeply and will follow along like a herd of bantha, it is just a matter of ensuring that you carry the right feed to get them moving..."

It was rather interesting to note that this was a lot like, at least, from my perspective, a favorite phrase of mine.

The greatest trick the Devil ever played, was making the world believe that he didn't exist.

 **XXX**


	4. 4: Watching the shifting tides

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is purely for recreational purposes.**

 **XXX**

Sixty years. That is how long I've been here so far, and I've seen quite a bit so far and I have no doubt that I will see much more to come. Still, twenty years just having children, another twenty raising them before another ten looking for the world now called New Thessia while a final ten was spent building the foundations of what will be an entirely new race coming into existence within this universe. It was as incredible as it was annoying, especially since the work was a pain to deal with, not that I was complaining since I knew it needed to be done.

Within six months of setting down, we had built a fully functioning Omni-foundry that was pumping out Multi-purpose LOKI mechs that were being used as a mass work force, each driven by an individual VI that was then directed by an overseeing group of VIs that were each appointed to a different task. Some were tasked with laying the foundations of the initial colony, others were working to mine resources from the land, specifically the mountains, while others still were being used to farm from the beginnings of Hydroponic and Aeroponic gardens and farms that were constructed within the first three weeks. Following that, other things started coming together as I watched several Particle Accelerators coming online within the second year, six in total and all of them hidden in underground vaults, each one was stacked on top of the other and could produce roughly three metric tons ever week of Eezo. Keep in mind, that was for the standard, generalized purity that was considered the 'catch-all' standard for most things, lower purity stuff would allow for a significant increase in the amount produced within the same time while the reverse was also true, higher purity meant less produced in the same time.

After the Eezo production started, things started taking off as more Omni-foundries were created along with larger and larger numbers of mechs including modified versions of JOTUN mechs that were equipped with heavy construction tools, among other things. Within three years of landing on the planet, the first tower was halfway finished, the unfinished top of which was able to reach nearly three kilometres straight up, supported by Mass Lightening fields, Kinetic barriers and numerous layers of armor plating. The sides of said tower were also lined with over half a metre of Silaris armor, backstopped with a dozen redundant Omni-gel and Nanonic self-repair systems that would ensure the dark blue, silver and purple surface was always in good condition. Added to this were the dozens of GUARDIAN turret arrays that dotted the sides of the tower along with even more GTS turrets, each one fitted with sixteen double tubes of Matter/Anti-Matter missiles, giving each turret over 24 missiles to play with. Even on the uncompleted tower, that was easily hundreds of thousands of missiles that could be launched, not counting the ATG missile as well. The ground floor of the tower itself was even more heavily fortified, giving the entire thing a base diametre of over three quarters of a kilometre, reinforced with over _two metres of Silaris_ in some places, and having a literal army of RAMPART, MJOLNIR and even a few automated heavy Mass Accelerator turrets with a bore measured at ten millimetres across, a dozen of these were littered, on quad-mount turrets, around the base of the tower.

Honestly, I thought it was overkill at the time, but my Daughters were the ones that designed and had the Mechs building it, I just went with it. They even named the tower, calling it The Tower of Athame, with a total number of floors that was simply insane, most of which were, according to them, dedicated for me. The entire top of the tower was meant to be my future home, and when I say that, I meant the top third, a good two kilometres belonging to me alone. Still, even ten years later, it wasn't finished, but it was getting closer as more Mechs and materials were pumped into its construction.

Aside from building that tower, the girls had also been busy establishing the foundations of their own Houses, making housing around the lower levels of the Tower while also ensuring the other defences were also in place over the few years up until this point. Massive Kinetic barrier arrays, Mag-Shields and even dozens of redesigned Deflector and Particle Shield designs that Larahin and Malany had managed to steal from the Holonet and reverse engineer, with the help of a few others. Still, as production of Eezo and Mechs continued to ramp up, the speed of construction only increased, both being supplied by the Omni-foundries and particle accelerators that had been moved under the Tower.

In fact, Jan'sha and a few others had already gotten together and decided that the next major construction project should be a massive series of Orbital elevator _ **s**_. Plural. Three were planned to go around the equator of New Thessia before combining into a ring in orbit of the planet. Said ring was planned to act as both an orbital shipyard, a docking port and a weapons platform with projectors for a planetary shielding system installed within it. Even with only the base of one tower complete, my children were not lacking in ambition.

Though, with all the knowledge currently swimming around in my head, it was nearly impossible for me to miss it. While my girls were more than willing to play together, the subtle power plays were already starting to show. They were nothing major, certainly nothing to worry about, especially since it mostly seemed to be along the vein of who could gain the most favor from me by doing one thing or another. Which, also explained a few things about how intricate the detail was when I had seen even the most _basic_ of the rooms for my section of the tower. Some of them could have made the most expensive hotels and mansions look like barely maintained shitholes given the sheer amount of stuff that was around. Even with just the lower levels available to me, I couldn't help but feel that they had outdone themselves.

When I said as much, they simply beamed at me and told that the upper floors were going to be even _better?!_ And that was _without_ mentioning the various weapons, defences and miniature army that was planned to be stationed there at all times.

Goddess help me deal with my overachieving daughters.

 **XXX**

"Just under a century. I must admit, I never expected for us to make so much progress in such a small amount of time." Spoke Queen Matriarch Nyiss Arteis as she stood by a window, her form covered by a body hugging dress of light cyans, dark purples and lines of silver with pockets of Eezo laced within the fabric, meant to enhance her Biotics if they were ever needed.

"Thank you, my Queen." Came the voice of Jan'sha as she kneeled before her mother, who had her back turned and was looking out of the top of the Tower of Athame. The massive observation room was largely empty with a series of long, comfortable and exquisitely well made sofas laying around, low backs with long sections to allow a person to lie down on them. Around the room, mechs with a female body style waited attentively, serving as maids and the like as one walked up to the table between two such sofas and laid a few drinks on it. Their chrome forms reflecting in the light bouncing in from the windows as it's featureless face never moved its gaze from its task of preparing the drinks.

"I am merely speaking the truth, Jan'sha." Nyiss spoke, her lips twitching slightly as she gestured for her daughter to rise before turning around and walking over. "It's been a century since you and your sisters have been born, fifty years since we've arrived on New Thessia, and one can't help but marvel at the progress you and your sisters have made in that time. Already, one of the orbital elevators nears completion while construction starts on the second. Teluc is already working on various forms of Bionetic and Nanonic augments for your own children, Sarum has seen to the creation of a dozen workshops to produce weapons and armor while Larahin and Malany are already working on background to allow them to infiltrate and over take the cultures of other races."

"... We simply take after our role model." Jan'sha offered with a half smile as she sat down on a sofa that was offered to her as her mother took the one opposite. Getting a snort of amusement from the older Asari in turn.

"Jan'sha, I've been the only role model you and the others have had, not to mention the fact that I taught you everything you know, and everything that you will probably pass on to your own children. The designs that Sarum is using are all recreations of weapons and armor used by the Asari before the Cataclysm, as are the ships and tactics that you hope to recreate for the military. So trust me when I say that a while it will work well in the beginning, we must strive to improve beyond that. One of the original faults in the Asari society was that they were too happy to simply accept the status quo of a given situation and try their best to maintain it, causing technological stagnation as a result." Nyiss explained as her daughter nodded, sipping from the Eezo-laced brandy that she was drinking while thinking about how to prevent that from happening.

"Glailne has already been considering this, she wants to try creating networks of hard-locked VIs that will be programmed to constantly run system scans of technological designs to see how they can be improved. As new technologies are created and discovered, we feed them back into the system and use that to upgrade our technology step by step. She told me that she would have a design for the first iteration of the system within two weeks." Jan'sha stated, getting a nod from her mother at the thought of her Sister, Mother's fifth child, Glailne Aveto. Glailne had chosen to take her house and focus it into a kind of general R&D that would not specialize in anything so much as looked into everything with varying degrees of interest. Already, she was working quickly to create technologies and ideas that were working well to improve the efficiency of both construction projects as well as the collection of resources. Most of these systems were only prototypes, but they showed great promise. Nyiss hummed in thought.

"Have her continue with her idea, but ensure that the VIs are incapable of doing anything but coordinating with one another to more thoroughly identify flaws and ways of improvement. I do not want them suddenly developing into an unshackled AI." Nyiss stated firmly, getting a nod from her daughter before she took a sip of her own drink in turn as they lapsed into silence once more.

"... How long until the shipyards are finished, exactly? I'll admit that I probably know it, but can you refresh my memory?" Nyiss suddenly asked for a second, causing Jan'sha to snap to.

"The first orbital elevator should be finished with the next year, from there, it will take another year before the first four shipyard is available for use, but that should give us another four with each year that passes as the ring is completed." Jan'sha stated simply before Nyiss nodded in turn as they drifted back into silence. Jan'sha fidgeted slightly before she reached behind her, grabbing a data pad from her back before placing it on the table. Her mother glanced down at the pad before looking at her daughter questioningly.

"Well, you said that we had to constantly be improving, so I came up with these. It's a few ideas for some Special forces units beyond just what the normal forces of the Asari would do. I've got three ideas for groups in mind, but I wanted your final go-ahead before I started planning any further." Jan'sha stated, getting a nod from her mother.

"Leave the pad with me. I'll read it later. you can have a few more drinks before you leave, though." Her mother stated, getting a nod from her as she knew that staying any longer would be unneeded, she had come to report to the Queen Matriarch as to the progress of the colony, and she had. Jan'sha would finish her cup, then she would call it at that before leaving.

Still, she made sure to savor the taste, especially as to being able to share some company with her Mother. Something that all the sisters agreed was... _Nice._

 **XXX**

Watching as Jan'sha left the room, I let a smile tug at my lips as I could easily feel the waves of relief rolling off of her as she left, I could definitely feel her having lost some stress from a day's work.

I smiled at that, sometimes, the best way to relax was just to sit down and talk with a familiar face that held a willing ear. Then again, the talent I had discovered recently seemed to also play a part in that. It was something I had found out nearly twenty years ago, faint at first, but growing more pronounced as time went on, a kind of sixth sense that linked me to my daughters. It was, at first, like a vague impression of how each of them was doing, but that image soon resolved to the point where I could picture a web-like image in my mind, linking me to my daughters, it was fascinating. An advantage of this was that I always knew how my daughters were feeling and, if they were upset, what the cause was to help them recover. It was rather useful in that aspect as it also told me where they were relative to myself, I even suspected that, as they matured, they would be able to access the Link, as I had taken to calling it. The tactical and strategic advantages alone would have made it well worth it.

I frowned slightly at that thought, true, it would be a boon to any wartime effort, but the problem lay in the fact that I had no idea what the cause of this was. The knowledge in my head held nothing that related to this, the closest being what Ardat-Yakshi to people after a partial linking, turning them into little more than brain-dead thralls while retaining so form of link to them, but that was not the case here. It was something to investigate in the future, I noted, as I took a sip from my Brandy. For now, I decided to focus on other things.

"Let's see what you've got planned, Jan'sha..." I muttered to myself as I looked at the pad before skimming over the details, looking for key points to summaries the material as quickly and as efficiently as possible. I felt my mouth twitch into a smile as I kept reading, noting little details and points of interest as it continued, but I didn't lose sight of the overview of it, nor did I lose sight of what it was describing.

Basically, Jan'sha proposed the beginnings of three new special forces groups, one of which was meant to be a combination of what I remembered of the Discerning and the Nightwind, another was meant to act as a Black Ops, and heavy assault, version of normal Asari Commandos, while the last one was supposed to act as my personal guard unit, something I found rather amusing, if nothing else.

The first of these groups was to be called the Crushing Abyss. A combination of the Nightwind and Discerning, replacing both, that's primary goal was to ensure the dominance of the Asari Sovereignty. The basic idea was that they were to take Asari Commandos and have them cross trained with Larahin's house, specifically in seduction, psychology and anatomy to ensure that they knew what to do, not counting the other things that she would already know. From there, the Commando would be modified with a number of augments, the key ones being a specially designed Chameleon Skin Bionetic augment that would allow them to change the texture, colour and pattern of their skin to allow them to, effectively, carry out a skin-deep shape shifting trick. Along with this, pheromone-release systems would be added to allow the agents to release the appropriate chemicals to get a target into any state of mind that she wished, usually putting them in a suggestive state of mind would be the key.

Using these augments, Crushing Abyss agents would infiltrate the Galaxy and start moving around, slipping around and... _Convincing_ certain individuals to meet them somewhere private to... _Relax_ , where they would then Meld with the target. Once done, they would start planting compulsions or seeds of ideas into said person's head. Getting them to think a certain way, one that would favor Asari interests. There was also other things, additional notes about giving some high-level agents Blackware Nanonics and using them to create spies, usually through a combination of a Ghost-hack rig, Grey Boxes and Meld-based compulsions. Said spies would be normal people that wouldn't even know they were spying for the Asari, and probably never would. Still, the effects of these spies would be an accumulative thing, with each spy passing on certain points of view to the next generation of people, often points of view that would be deemed acceptable by the Asari for when they show themselves. Luckily, a generation between most races and the Asari was a rather different thing. The average length of a generation, for Humans, was about thirty years, while for Asari, it was two hundred years, in the same amount of time, a single generation of Asari could see to the manipulation of six generations of Humans, almost seven even. By that point, it would only be a matter of ensuring that the... _Corrections_ to their world views were reinforced and remained as strongly as possible in a Pro-Asari outlook. Rather clever, honestly, especially since no one would even realize what was happening because there wouldn't be any real links to follow.

Moving on, the next group was called Unspoken. A Blackops group composed of heavily modified and cross-trained Commandos that would then be sent out into the Galaxy to eliminate anything that threatened Asari interests. They would be using Asari tech primarily, but for most things, they would be using upgraded Blasters to take down targets and make it look like a local assassin rather than bringing it back to the Asari, getting up close to a target was not something that would be done as their SOP. From the notes Jan'sha left, they would either be utterly silent until the first, and last, shot was fired from an ultra long range sniper rifle, or they would act like a Crushing Abyss agent and infiltrate before eliminating the target. Any time they needed to resort to heavy assault tactics, that would be when things got interesting.

Among their modifications was a number that would increase their physical strength, speed, reaction times, hand-eye coordination and durability, all of which would be Bionetic in origin to prevent the possibility of rejection of cyberware. Nanothreading would also be present in a number of them as to make them as close to unstoppable forces of nature as possible while their armor would be primarily composed of Heavy Power armor, Battle-suits and large-scale piloted mechs. Weapons would be up to individual choice, but the guidelines I was reading said that most of them would be Plasma or Particle-based to prevent easy tracing, Sunfire pistols, Disciple Shotguns and Spear of Athame Assault Rifles. Warp Swords would also be present, along with a few Biotics Hammers, but those would be used only if needed to close distance to take out a target... Like if said target could use the Force. Aside from that, they were basically the same as normal Commandos, but with their entire membership being composed of Battle Matriarchs and War Priestesses.

Needless to say, it was planned that they would be supremely powerful Biotics.

The last group, however, almost made me want to both laugh my ass off and throttle my daughter, simply because, at first, it made me think that she was implying that I couldn't defend myself. The last group, called the Blackhand, was planned to be my personal guard, a kind of military unit that worked _directly_ for me with no middle-men, or women, to filter commands through. The proposal was rather vague on details, mostly because Jan'sha still seemed to thinking the idea over, but what I saw was rather interesting. Jan'sha had apparently been speaking with a few of her sisters and had been looking into some experimental technologies, mostly as force multipliers for specific units of forces. The Blackhand, according to the notes, were planned to be equipped with Bionetic armor as standard, nanothreading, and Blackware to ensure they were always armed, those were planned to be the _minimum_ amount of augments allowed. As for weapons, it seemed that Jan'sha had decided that Overkill would be the best way and was planning to have them all equipped with Particle Beam Rifles along with Sunfire pistols and a fair number of other tricks as standard. Furthermore, they would also be heavily cross-trained with both the Unspoken and the Crushing Abyss, allowing them to act as my personal version of both.

The Crushing Abyss were meant as the eyes and ears of the Asari Sovereignty, the Unspoken were the hidden dagger to go with those eyes and ears. The Blackhand were not meant to serve the Sovereignty, rather, they were to serve me and my interests, meaning that if I told them to slaughter the entire population of a planet, they would do it in a heartbeat.

Skimming through the rest of the information, I noted that Jan'sha had included times when she believed that these units could be created. The Crushing Abyss could have been deployed right now, as an extension of Larahin's House and with her being the first member, it's leader. The augments were fairly standard stuff and could be given to her once we had the right technologies available to us, Jan'sha said that a century and a half, minimum, before she was willing to do such, both for the sake of gaining more numbers, to ensure proper training, and to make sure that the tech worked as advertised. The Unspoken were basically the same, though, the timescale was more in line with three to four centuries to allow members of the military to acquire enough training, skill and power to be capable of fighting at the right level. Augments and equipment would have been ready after two centuries, giving them plenty of time to test, change and upgrade as needed.

The Blackhand, however...

The technologies to create the Blackhand were going to take six centuries, minimum, to design, test and approve to be ready for active use, not to mention the fact that Jan'sha apparently noted that she wanted to split off part of her House to work entirely as the Blackhand, basically separating them from her House and training them from birth to be the strongest warriors of the Sovereignty. It kind of reminded me of what the Mandalorians did, but would also include a vast number of other things such as Bionetic augments, Biotic training and cross-training in a dozen fields like hacking, first aid, seduction and more.

Still, I gave the concept my hesitant approval to carry on, sending a message to Jan'sha through my Omni-tool a moment later as I felt her joy through the Link at getting her pet projects approved. I smiled at that, at the end of the day, they were still my children, and I was happy enough knowing that they were happy.

 **XXX**

"How many ships have you managed to build since the first shipyards came online?" I asked as I stood in the observation room of the first, completed, orbital elevator. The massive thing was made using a complex mix of high quality materials, Eezo lightening and a good grasp of material science, all covered with the standard curves of Asari design. Next to me, Sarum was holding a pad between her fingers, information flowing through her Omni-tool and into the machine as I looked at the skeletal forms of several ships in shipyards, swarms of Mechs and Drones all moving around them to ensure they were finished as quickly as possible. It wasn't really a big deal, as far as I could see, especially since each ship was going to be able to punch _way_ above its weight class.

"Ever since the first shipyards came online eight years ago, we've been producing Frigates and a mix of some Light and Heavy Cruisers offer them support, but aside from that, very little else has been made. In terms of numbers, we have over two hundred Frigates, twenty Light Cruisers and ten Heavy Cruisers" Sarum explained simply as I nodded, turning to her slightly.

"What can you tell me about the specifications? I'll admit that I'm familiar with the designs used before the Cataclysm, but I can see that you've made a few changes." I noted, especially since it was true. Normal Asari ships were composed of a ring section in the centre that held the Cascade Mass Effect Core with three, or so, wings coming out of the ship to create a Y-like shape. Most ships were taller and wider than they were long, but these ships being built by my daughters seemed to shift away slightly, but only just. An instant later, and Sarum was projecting an image of one of the Frigates. It was composed a central ring section that made up the majority of its length, being about fifty metres long and another forty metres in diametre, out of this ring came four wings, each one smooth as they extended in a cross formation from the ring. Each wing was swept back slightly, increasing the width of the ship to exactly one hundred metres and the total height to about sixty metres. The armor and hull of the ship was smooth and covered virtually everything, making the ship potent and difficult to disable with few exposed weak points. The armor and hull materials were primarily Silaris armor, with the outer armor being over half a metre thick while the inner hull was another thirty centimetres of the stuff.

On the hologram, I could also see eight Heavy Mass Accelerators with two per wing, one at the tip while the other was at the wing root, along with two rings of twenty GUARDIAN Laser turrets at the front and back of the ship, a few metres away from the hole that allowed for the Core to function. Lastly, I saw two torpedo tubes located on the underside of the ship, probably equipped with a smart auto-loader to ensure efficient use of munitions.

"As you can see, we've changed the Frigates rather heavily." Sarum began. "We've doubled the total number of Heavy Mass Accelerators, each with a bore of around sixteen millimetres, the wingtip turrets are capable of firing at anything within a nearly 360 degree arc of fire while the wing root turrets can only shot forwards within an 110 degree cone of fire. We've added multiple GUARDIAN turrets, forty in total, each of which are linked to a series of coordinating VIs that determine what has the best line of fire before checking with a series of predictive movement VIs to ensure that they are as accurate as possible. Along with this, we've also added a twin-layer Kinetic barrier with a Mag-shield system and a Hyperdrive, the former two because they have shown themselves to be better protection than the local equivalent while the latter is faster on a strategic level than our own FTL system, which is faster on a tactical level." I nodded so far, sounded rather standard as things were but with a bigger weapons loadout.

"What about the Accelerators? Are they throwing hunks of metal or have you changed that?" I asked, curious, as I saw Sarum grin slightly at that.

"No. We've looked at the tech you downloaded and taught us about, and we decided to go with Accelerated Particle Packages. We've tested them against Deflector and Particle Shields with varying results, the former offers below average protection when compared to a similarly powered Turbolaser while the latter only decreases the power per shot, not enough to make a significant difference, but a few of us think that a sufficiently powerful Particle Shield could do the trick. The GUARDIAN Lasers also work in the X-ray section of the EM Spectrum while the two torpedo launchers you noted earlier are equipped to fire either M/AM Torpedoes or Neutron Torpedoes holding a few grams of Neutron matter that is held under a Mass Effect field to keep it contained. Once the field fails, the neutron matter explosively uncompresses and detonates in an explosion of hard radiations, X-rays, Gamma rays and large amounts of EM fields to mess with sensors." I nodded at that, rather impressed since I hadn't known they were making such things.

"When did you start making Neutron Torpedoes? And, for that matter, how? I know that it was possible to build them, but that required harvesting the stuff from a Neutron star, a costly endeavor that usually needed large amounts of funding and time before it started paying itself back.

"Oh, well, we read about it and figured out that using a sufficiently strong Mass Effect field would crush the matter tightly enough for it to work. It took a lot of effort, but we managed a few prototypes before we were happy with the final result. Testing showed that one of them was fully capable of destroying an Asteroid a few kilometres long, usually by snapping it in half. We finished testing the mass production version some four years ago and made them a standard munitions." I felt an eyebrow rise at that, those would be able to do a lot of damage in the years to come, I fully expected one hit to either destroy, cripple or utterly disable a Star Destroyer with little difficulty, especially if the Torpedo hit something vital.

"What other systems do you have installed?" I asked, curious as to what other tricks that were installed.

"In space combat, the things that seemed to define most of the Pre-Cataclysm ship designs I've seen were their Heat Endurance, Targeting and Firing ranges, and their Damage Control abilities. To handle the first of these problems, we've equipped out ships with Neutrino Radiators with a backup Heatsink system that can be vented through the use of Omni-gel coolant, this also has the side effect of allow us to discharge static buildup in deep space, removing a limitation for FTL travel, and leaving us only needed to truly worry about the consumption of fuel throughout extended trips. Targeting and Firing ranges are handled by extensive, linked series of sensors as well as Drones that can be released from the hull to act as long range spotters, scouts and anti-fighter units if needed." Sarum smirked a bit at that. "I've heard that Malany put forwards the idea of just releasing a dozen Drones to act as suicide weapons and turn the space around our ships into literal minefields. She already came up with several designs for such a thing, two of which incorporate Neutron matter warheads."

I snorted at that, Malany was not really all that subtle when it came to matters war, usually seeing the best option as simply throwing the biggest explosion she could make at an enemy and calling it a job well done. I'd admit, that worked rather well for a fair number of enemy forces, but it wouldn't work for every situation.

"What about damage control?" I asked, getting another nod.

"Damage control is handled by VI controlled mechs and a grid of Omni-gel filled ceramic tubes. If the tubes are burst by an impact, then the Omni-gel rapidly expands and hardens on contact with the vacuum until the seal is fixed. Outer sections of the ship are also decompressed to below a level where fires can start, preventing another issue in things to worry about. Ion-based weapons are already countered by the simple fact that we use Optronic computers and wiring, while power cables have Optronic switchboards to ensure that overloads are cut off before they can become a problem." I nodded again, it was a wise move, after all.

"And these features are standard across all ships?" Sarum nodded this time.

"These are the bare minimum features that all ships share in terms of those three aspects, usually with larger classes of ships having more features to ensure that they are even less of a problem, especially in combat."

"Fair enough, now, what about the Light and Heavy Cruisers?" The hologram of the Frigate was replaced by two more images, these being significantly bigger as I looked them over. The first one was the standard Y-shape I was familiar with, a ring-oval section that was roughly seventy metres tall, ninety metres across and about 65 metres long, from either side, two wings extended to increase the width of the ship by another ninety metres to either side of the ship. A single tower extended straight down the bottom of the vessel, finishing with a slopped cap at around 95 metres at the very tip, adding to the height of the massive ship just a tad and increasing the cross section of it as a result. On the surface, I could pick out a few weapons hidden in recessed mountings, series of rings made up from GUARDIAN turrets on the front and back of the ring sections as well as at the end of each wing-tower. Along with that, I saw what looked like Heavy mass accelerator cannons tucked away into the roots of the side wing-towers, each one with a larger bore and seeming to be a dual mount. Along the bottom tower, I saw six Torpedo tubes with three on either side, moving down the wing-tower while at the end of each wing-tower I saw another set of turrets, these ones being dual mounted as well, but the barrels were oddly shaped with four sections that extended out, each one seeming to be hinged to one degree or another. Particle weapons, perhaps?

"This is a Light Cruiser, a redesign of the old ones you gave us, these things are going to be difficult to take down. Each one is plated with an outer armor layer made from over a metre of Silaris armor plating with another half metre making up the inner hull. They have twice the redundancy for damage control as a Frigate while also including multiple Kinetic barrier systems to allow for KB bulkheads to be generated along with Omni-plating in some cases, energy draining, but very good for if you want to block off a corridor as quickly as possible, especially during a boarding action. Along with that, internal gun turrets mounting five millimetre Mass Accelerators pepper the corridors while the DC mechs are also armed to help repel boarders. For weapons, the ship is armed with three, dual-mounted turrets that each hold two 25 millimetre APP Heavy Mass Accelerator cannons. GUARDIAN turrets were placed around the Ring section in two rings of forty turrets with another three rings of twenty placed around the ends of all three wings. Along with that, the bottom wing has six Torpedo Launchers capable of firing any standard type of Torpedo we have while each wing ends with a dual-mounted Particle Lance turret. Each of these turrets were armed with two up-scaled Lance cannons, they are short ranged in terms of ship-board weapons, but anything they hit is bound to be deader than dead, especially since they release a large amount of hard radiation focused into the target once they impact." Sarum explained swiftly as she tilted this hologram. I smiled at how thoroughly armed it was for a _Light_ Cruiser.

"What about defences beyond the armor?" I asked, curious.

"Three layers of KB Shields with another two layers of Mag-shields, not to mention a built in Omni-foundry with enough Omni-gel to produce a literal minefield of Drones, just as Malany wanted. The total stock on just one Light Cruiser is usually enough to produce, in testing, about five hundred Drones, each of which is about the size of an Aircar and quite a bit faster." Sarum remarked as she brought up another hologram, this time for a heavier variant.

Looking over it, it looked to have roughly the same dimensions, but I noted that it seemed... Chunkier, for lack of a better term. The ring section was thicker with extra plating while the individual wings were thicker as well, and five metres longer by the look of it. The weapons had changed as well, with twelve Torpedo tubes instead of six on the lower section, the rings of GUARDIAN turrets around the ship are each increased in size to include another ten turrets, bringing the two rings around the body up to a total of fifty each while each wing-tower ring now is composed of thirty turrets. The Particle Lances were replaced with a tri-mount of thirty millimetre Heavy Mass Accelerators linked to a smart auto-loader system that can feed any number of alternative ammos into it. So far, it can use the Standard slugs, solid hunks of metal that transfer kinetic into the target on impact, Flack shells, that detonate to cover a wide area in shrapnel and to take out lighter enemy vessels, and Hammer Slugs, which contain large amounts of high-explosive or Anti-matter charges. Lastly, in terms of weapons, the 25 millimetre APP Heavy Mass Accelerators were up-gunned with forty millimetre equivalents in the same arrangement, giving the ship just a massive increase in firepower." Sarum explained as the hologram saw multiple sections highlighted in various colours to demonstrate these things. It was interesting, though I knew better than to get sidetracked by these things.

"What about defences and Damage control?"

"The outer armor and inner hull have both been padded with extra Silaris armor, the outer layer having well over 2.5 metres while the inner layer now has 1.5 metres of the stuff. Four kinetic barriers instead of two, with three Mag-shield systems and a single layer of Cyclonic energy shields to deflect opening volleys of munitions, though, that can also be used to blast any ships that come too close away, usually by snapping them in half. As for Damage control? Well, each Heavy Cruiser is equipped with nearly double the number of Omni-gel Grids as a Light Cruiser, not to mention having all external areas de-pressurized during combat and having enough Mechs onboard to be called a small army." I smiled at that, nodded once more as I glanced back at the void out the window, the massive shipyards still working away in the silence of space.

"Good." I commented. "It sounds like you've put together a rather impressive foundation for a Navy. Though, I must question what you are doing with those warships, especially since, as far as I know, they are still being crewed by Mechs." Sarum gave a half-shrug.

"Right now? We're using them to petrol the system to prevent anyone from attacking us. Sure, they can't match up to the same performance as a ship of the same class that has a full Asari crew, especially since trained engineers are needed to make the Cascade Core work to its utmost potential, but their guns work fine, along with the normal engines." I smirked at that, it was a good start for something bigger.

And, judging by the expression on Sarum's face, she knew it as well. I could already feel the gears in her mind twisting and turning as plans were spinning through her mind. I had no doubt that whatever plans she and her sisters came up with would be... _Interesting_.

I made a mental note to have popcorn, or an equivalent, on hand for when those plans finally came to fruition.

 **XXX**

"How is it coming?" Larahin asked as she walked into the lab of her sister, Esaley simply rolled her eyes as she continued to type away at the terminal she was working on, humming an old tune that she learned from their mother.

"Slow." She remarked simply. "The augments that you want for yourself, and those that your daughters that you want to be inducted into this group, are going to take time to perfect, and even then, there is no guarantee that they will work as expected."

"Understandable." Larahin remarked back with a half shrug. "I never expected you to be able to make something that would work perfectly first time, but I do want to know how things are coming along. So...? What can you tell me?" Larahin asked, smiling as she got a sigh in response, Esaley muttering under her breath at how she believed that Malany was supposed to be the annoying one of her sisters, but didn't go any further as she pressed a button on her terminal before a series of holographic representations of Asari bodies started appearing, each of them little more than a wire-mesh. Slowly, details started coming in as areas were zoomed in on as information started coming through.

"The three standard augments that the Queen Matriarch and Jan'sha agreed on were, probably, the easiest to get working and are already completed, you can undergo the process to use them tomorrow if you really wanted to. However, some of the others are going to take time." Esaley explained as she waved a hand. One of the many holograms moving before them as an image zoomed in on a section of the skin of the being, the hands, to reveal smooth skin. A moment later, a dozen barbs extended from the skin, too small for anyone to see, but they were still there.

"The first augment, the Barb Injection system, was probably the easiest. It was based on information the Queen Matriarch gave us on a species of creations commonly called 'Jellyfish' allowing for rapid injection of any kind of payload that was in those barbs. The delivery system was simply, however, your request for what you wanted the Venom-glands of this implant to be capable... Those are going to take time. Not to mention test subjects, especially if you want me to be able to ensure that you can inject any kind of chemical that could send any number of races into any number of states from suggestive to being in a practical coma."

"Fair enough, though, like I said, I knew there was only so far you could go without test subjects. I'll be heading back into the Galaxy, once I get Mother's blessing to do so, with all the augments that you deem ready. I'll be visiting Slave markets and picking up a few dozen of every race they have available, should give you plenty of test subjects." Larahin replied with a smirk, getting a nod in turn from her younger sister.

"And what about for the races that _aren't_ available in those markets?"

"Every race has those that no one will miss if they were to... _Disappear_ , it is only a matter of finding them." Esaley nodded at that.

"True." A swipe of the hand caused the previous hologram to disappear before being replaced by another. "Again, with the Pheromone Control System, the problem is the same. I can easily make the delivery system, but I have yet to test the effectiveness of the Bionetic implant in any way. The air-based dispersal system works perfectly, as does the contact-based version, so you don't need to worry too much about the delivery systems, just the effectiveness of the chemicals."

"And what about the last one?"

" _That_ one, is being difficult." Esaley stated as she swiped her hand again. This time, causing a web of glowing purple to appear within the body of the wireframe mesh, a glowing copy of the Eezo spread through an Asari's body. "Yeah, I can do it, hell, any of us could do it by bathing in Eezo-tainted waters, but the odds are good that we would end up getting incurable cancer growths within a few weeks of trying to do that over an extended period of time. I could probably fix that with time and test subjects, but I'd rather leave that kind of experimentation until there are more of us, so as to ensure that we aren't all wiped out simply because one of us wanted to move faster than we should have." Larahin nodded at that, her face serious at that point.

"Agreed. Put that one on the back-burner and focus on the other two. I'll go see Mother about leaving for those Slave markets to get your test subjects. You mind getting ready to give me the other mods I wanted?" Larahin asked as she turned to leave the room, glancing over her shoulder as the door slide open.

"No problem. Should be ready by midday, just come down when you're ready any time after that."

The door slide shut a second after that was said, leaving Esaley to continue her work while Larahin walked away with a smirk on her face. To her, things were progressing well. In her mind, this was only a sign that, when the time came, the Asari would be the ones standing on top of this Galaxy.

She was sure of it.

 **XXX**


	5. 5: Shadow of an Oncoming Wave

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is purely for recreational purposes.**

 **XXX**

Jil Tres was a happy Duros. In fact, he was so happy, that he was literally having to force himself not to dance on the spot in the middle of the Slave markets of Nal Hutta, the only thing preventing him from doing so was the fact that his customer was still standing right in front of him.

Still, that didn't stop him from smiling at said customer. The being in question was, from the looks of it, a Human female, covered in a particularly heavy suit of armor and armed with a few weapons under a heavy coat that extended all the way down to her ankles and a hood over her head. All Jil could really see of her was a narrow line down the middle of her chest to show her breast plate as well as the lower section of her face, her lips and chin being present, a knowing smile playing across her lips, as though she knew what Jil was thinking, but made no move to stop him. Then again, given the order she had just placed, the Duros slaver was more than willing to dance in the streets and sing at the top of his lungs, especially given the fact that she was buying his entire stock at once!

Over two hundred slaves of just about every Near-Human race he could care to name, that were present within his section of the markets, not to mention the Humans themselves. That was well over one hundred different races that were then packed up on to the Lady's ship as tightly as possible, helped by the crew on said ship, an Action VI Freighter, to pack them up as tightly as possible. One thing that he had noticed, probably something he could employ himself, was that they seemed to be putting the slaves into small, coffin-like boxes before attaching needles to them to provide chemicals to both render them unconscious as well as ensure they survived the trip. It was rather smart, though, then again, he doubted that he would be able to make it work since the chemicals would need to be measured out on a per-race basis, making it difficult to be sure what would and would not be effective for use. Then again, he considered, this group had clearly come prepared for business as he had noted a few dozen more containers filled with Non-Humans in roughly the same ratio as he had been giving to these girls. Two hundred beings, half male and half female, all of which had to be in good physical condition and well trained, pretty standard stuff, all things considered.

"There you go, that should be the last of them." He noted as he looked passed the leader of this group to see the last slave being loaded into their containers before it being closed, locked and then slide into a honeycomb to maximize the amount of space they could use. The Lady nodded her head at that, her smile still in place as she tilted her head to one side as another woman came up beside her with a briefcase in hand.

"Good. However, before we go, I'd like to make a final transaction that will be added to your final payment." The leader stated as he paid attention to what was said next. "That Zeltron I saw in your stock, the one that was bound in a small cage on her own? How much for her?"

Jil was careful to ensure that his face didn't suddenly change to show his joy at finally getting rid of _that_ particular slave. The Zeltron had been a pain in the ass for as long as he had had her, usually to the point that no one wanted to even _attempt_ to purchase her. This was mostly because she seemed to be able to glare down anyone that came near her cage, forcing people away even with her hands and ankles bound to the bars of her cage, a gap in her mouth, and wearing little more than two strips of leather to cover her chest and waist. Still, if these people were going to take that damned bitch off his hands, then he wasn't going to stop them.

"Ah, yes. Her, right this way..."

 **XXX**

I had to admit, Larahin worked quickly when she decided to get the needed 'test subjects' for her sister to use to perfect any number of augments. In particular, I knew for a fact that Larahin didn't need to get _nearly_ as many people to allow Esaley to perform the needed experiments, 25 of each gender for each race that she wanted to be able to effect would have worked just as well. However, I had seen into my Daughter's head, seen her plans and thoughts through the Link, I knew what she was thinking, and what she was planning was her own series of experiments to learn more about the races of the Galaxy.

Specifically, she wanted to learn about their psychology and biology and how to influence both through her chosen methods of control, usually by pillaging their minds with a few Melds. I had seen the results of the first few tries, usually resulting in those that she carried out a Mind-rip to become little more than barely living vegetables, but she was improving. Each Mind-rip and Meld was getting better, she was waking up certain members of each race before... _Convincing_ them to serve as Indentured Servants for a decade or two before twisting them around through heavy use of operant conditioning. She did this through subtle uses of Melds, the new injection Bionetic implants along with a heavy spray of various pheromones to get these people thinking, and acting, in the way she wanted. Already, it had only been about two years since her trip to Nal Hutta, and she had managed to convince at least two hundred of them to be her personal servants that worked for little more than her approval.

It was rather funny that, in turn, Larahin was doing this to ensure she gained as much control of the Galaxy as quickly as possible to earn my own approval.

Still... I had asked about why she needed that many, turns out that most of them were still in Stasis tubes similar to what the Collectors used in ME2, but with a different design to them, not that it mattered, they still worked off the same principle of locking down the matter that made up the individual at the Quantum level, effectively freezing them in place until the field lost power. Since said fields were being feed by massively powerful M/AM reactors, I didn't see that happening any time soon. Though, the answer I got for why Larahin had done this was rather simple: She wanted to have an excess of races both to allow her to send them out as scouts with implanted Greyboxes and Ghost-hack rigs, along with having more test subjects at the ready in case Esaley or any of her sisters got something they wanted to test out. At the very least, it meant that they wouldn't need to make repeated, and noticeable, trips to slave markets to buy massive, bulk shipments all that often.

Here was hoping that the Hutts didn't notice, and if they did, an accident could always be arranged...

 **XXX**

"Can you _please_ get your thrall to stand still? I thought we were here to work? Not just stand around while your thrall tries to shrug off as much clothing as possible, Larahin." Larahin grinned as she looked over her shoulder of her Zeltron thrall, said thrall was seemingly fidgeting to try and get comfortable in a dress that, while impressive-looking, showed off what the collective Galaxy would consider an indecent amount of skin, unless you were a Twi'lek stripper. Larahin didn't really care, all things told, her thrall, or, as some of her sisters called her, 'Indentured Servant', especially since the dress was positively conservative by some of the Asari standards that she had read about from the Queen Matriarch.

The Servant in question was a rather nice Zeltron, deep red, practically crimson, skin covered her body and showed off her well-muscled figure while still allow for soft curves and developed features that would have left any male of virtually any race drooling, walking into walls and chasing after her with even the slightest sway of the hips. White hair added to the effect as it gave her a near-ethereal appearance that only seemed to draw more attention to her smooth features and virtually flawless expression, said expression was currently set in a pleasant look of adoration as she looked at the back of Larahin's head along with occasionally glancing at the other two Asari in the room, Jan'sha and Malany. As her eyes flickered around, it was easy to see the Zeltron biting her lip for some reason, one that was rather easy to figure out if one knew what the woman had experienced with Larahin, as she tried to lean in one way or another, to shrug off her clothes or to show off a bit more skin. It was something of an achievement that she managed to make it work, especially given the dress she was wearing. Said dress was made from light fabrics, in the colours of red, orange, yellow and a few whites with the material hugging her body tightly as holes were cut out of the material in certain areas to enhance her appearance. Specifically, those holes were present around the cleavage, the stomach, both sides and most of the back, along with that, a long ling was cut down the left side of the dress, running from just below the waist all the way down to the bottom of the dress around the ankles.

The appeal showed off a tantalizing amount of well-sculpted flesh, something that had attracted more than a bit of attention among her sisters, especially some of the younger ones that were looking for a quick night of bliss. Still, looking back at her sisters, Larahin knew she needed to end this, ruining her own enjoyment of her two sisters' expressions as she knew that if the Zeltron wasn't removed, then there was a non-zero chance that nothing would come of this meeting as one of them would eventually try peeling the dress off her thrall with their teeth. Rolling her eyes at that thought, Larahin stood from her seat and turned around, reaching over the sofa before clamping a hand gently, but firmly, on to the thrall's jaw before pulling her close, almost dragging her over the sofa before slamming their lips together in a kiss that seemed to cause the Zeltron's entire body to turn to gelatin as she struggled to stay on her feet before Larahin pulled back with a smile and then leaned in, whispering in the Zeltron's ear.

"Return to my chambers. I'll be along in a while, we can carry out some more... _Pleasurable_ activities after I'm done here." Larahin stated before pulling back as the Zeltron beamed at that thought, rapidly turning and leaving the room while trying to conceal her excitement at the thought of what another night with the Asari might be like.

Let along the fact the Zeltron would be able to brag about having pleasured her mistress a bit more than some of the other 'Servants'.

"So! Now that the mild entertainment is out of the way, I suppose we can begin." Jan'sha stated dryly as she glanced over at Larahin once more, seeing her sister back in her seat as the door to the room closed behind the leaving thrall, getting a pout out of it where she smiled in return before they looked between themselves before looking into the middle of the room, specifically, the hologram that was being projected between the three of them.

The hologram showed the image of a suit of armor, large, covered in thick plates of armor over the arms, legs and upper torso while the head was protected by a fully-enclosed helmet. Under the thick plating was a layer of black that showed the protective under suit, which, while looking weak to the uninformed, was only _just_ weaker than the armor plating itself. The armor wore a raised mantle that circled the neck from the middle of the chest before slowly creeping up until it reached the back of the base of the head, leaving plenty of room for the wearer to look around, even with the helmet in place. On each shoulder, a single pod was present with a gap between them and under them for weapons to be mag-clamped to the armor with small containers located around the back of the waist and in each thigh, along the various mag-clamps to store weapons of different designs. To further detail the armor, the figure was shown to have an Asari-like figure while the armor was painted in black with grey and white trim to it, digital camouflage patterns covering the armor while the helmet was left largely without such patterns, mostly because of the massive, grey-tinted visor that reached up from the base of the jaw line and then wrapped around the head before stopping just behind the ear and halfway down the back of the head, ensuring that the user had a full range of vision and no interruptions in it.

"Well... I've already worked out the design, along with incorporating the features that you wanted, Jan'sha, that just leaves some of the finer details like what kind of materials should be used, whether they should be from the Republic-techbase or our own, and if you, Larahin, know of anything that might make the armor better than what we've already put together." Malany explained as she gestured to the armor as it spun in the air, slowly, a list of features appearing next to it as it moved. Larahin felt her eye-ridge going up and up and up with each feature that was stated.

"Flash-forged Titanium exoskeleton covered with high-impact ceramic armor over fifteen millimetres thick. Multiple inbuilt storage areas with mag-clamps for item and weapon storage. Dual in-built Omni-tools with full fabrication, infowar and engineering suites. A double under layer of Omni-gel and Nano-machine self-repair systems. Triple redundant series of Medi-gel distribution systems. Multi-phase Synthetic muscle bundles to increase user strength and speed. Direct neural interface and VI conversion for enhanced reaction times. A triple strength Biotic amplifier connected to, and supplemented by, a trinity of miniature Fusion reactors. Mass Effect field generators to allow for reduced weight in high-gravity environments or to alter the gravity of the user. Miniature jump jets built into the armor for limited flight and hover capabilities. Trans-atmospheric capabilities..." Larahin finished with a whistle, not daring to read some of the other features that her sisters clearly wanted on a suit of armor that, according to what Jan'sha and Malany had said, was meant to be the _Standard issue_ armor of the Sovereignty. It was more than enough to give even Heavy infantry and Mandalorians pause considering that the stuff amounted to a serious level of firepower and an expectation to use every scrap of it.

"Well, I can honestly say that it is impressive." Larahin commented, getting a half-smile from Jan'sha at that while Malany snorted, glancing at her more militant sister, obviously denoting who it was that decided that the armor was needed, even though it wasn't needed in the first place.

"That was what we were hoping for." Malany quipped back as she reached out and spun the hologram around, displaying it from all sides as Larahin took in some of the more obscure details of the design. "Now, what we need from you is any suggestions for additions, features and add-ons that you might have heard that might be common out in the wider Galaxy. Things that might give soldiers an edge when compared to the average soldier of a given Galactic polity. Think you can do that?"

Larahin hummed at that. It was true that she could do such a thing, having spent enough time among the Black Markets of the Galaxy to have picked up a few things, though she did see a rather obvious lack of need for some of these things.

"Honestly, given the inclusion of the Omni-tools and Shielding systems, including Mag-shields. You've already given this armor a hell of an edge over the suits of armor that would be available out in the rest of the Galaxy." Larahin offered with a shrug. "Most Bounty Hunters usually have weapons like flamethrowers, dart launchers, rocket launchers, Lasers and other weapons like that, built into their gauntlets, but with the Omni-tools, having those individually built into the armor simply adds to the production time and makes the forearms less durable due to having less and less armor. The only thing that really springs to mind is the use of some of the medical sensors such as Bio-scanners and life-form scanners that are commonly used to detect and track other life forms. Other sensors can easily work for non-organics while a few in-built stealth systems could work to prevent detection in turn." Jan'sha nodded at that.

"We'll need samples of those scanners to be able to reproduce and integrate them into the suits or armor. Getting copies of multiple types of sensors would probably be the best option since, then, we can experiment to see which systems work the best and then use what we wish. The stealth systems will also need some work, though, they were already slated to be added to the Commando-variant of these armor." Jan'sha mentioned as Larahin nodded.

"Fair enough." The third sister remarked as she stood up and walked around the sofa, heading for the exit, but not before asking one, final, question. "By the way, what were you thinking of calling these suits of armor?"

It was Malany to answer that question as she looks up from her own Omni-tool, details of internal systems being displayed as she quickly ran through a few more systems before grinning at her sister.

"Aegis."

 **XXX**

 _ **Bang! Bang!**_

I sighed, lifting the hammer clutched in my hand even as I held the Plasma-forged steel on top of the Mass effect compression anvil, keeping the metre long strip of metal steady as I hammered on, channeling my Biotics to form a Subsume, increasing the gravity being experienced by the blade even as I artificially increased the mass of my hammer. I was pounding this single strip of metal thinner than paper with every hit, getting it closer to the absolute thinnest point it could get to.

Honestly, for a second attempt to make a Warp Sword, I figured that it wasn't that bad. Admittedly, my first attempt was rather good, but I wanted to do better with this one, I figured that after a practice run that had taken me the better part of a three years to make. This one, on the other hand, I had been working on for over a decade, if only because I wanted to make something truly impressive even though I knew that I should take my time, especially since I had so _much_ time to spare. I smiled at that thought, even as I lifted the hammer once more to smash the strip of metal even further towards being the equivalent of a sheet steel only slightly thicker than a few molecules.

Two and a half centuries. I had been here for over 250 years now, and I was honestly enjoying it as things stood. I had long since moved passed my grievances, my old family would have been long since dead by this point in time multi-universal, flowing at the same rate across the multi-verse. Still, I was sad, but I had moved on, accepting that they were dead, that I'd never see them again meant that they may as well be dead even if time was different, or I had been thrown around in time. Now though, I had other things to focus on, my new family, my children, my daughters.

Honestly, those girls never stopped surprising me with everything they came up with. Already, they were expanding upon the nation I had laid the ground work for, they were still expanding upon that foundation, building upon them even as they gave birth to daughters of their own. It filled me with joy, knowing that I was effectively giving birth to an entire race within a universe that had never seen the Asari before, and that my daughters were giving birth to children of their own. I had grand-children now!

Some of my children had stuck with the original forty children that had been planned among them, others, like Jan'sha and Larahin, were planning so many more within the initial years of their Matron-hood, the former wanting as many as seventy children before calling it to a halt, at for the time being. The latter of the two wanted that many, plus another ten on top of that, eighty total, within the first few decades of her matron-hood with plans for a few dozen more as she progresses through life. Fifty years had already passed and the oldest of my grand-children were already fully mature on a physical level, mental development was slightly slower, but the use of Melds and teaching methods ensured that they matured quickly on a mental level as well. They still got plenty of time to enjoy themselves as children, but they were exposed to Asari culture quickly, along with their duties to any of the given Houses that they belonged to. Jan'sha's daughters were already forming the basis of the Asari military while Larahin had already taken her oldest daughters to spend a few nights properly... _Learning_ from her various thralls, some of which were actually the descendants of the original thralls that Larahin had purchased through slave markets, set into pre-determined couples and then allowed to breed to create what amounted to lineages of thralls. These lineages each were capable of serving different roles, most were for pleasure, comfort and relaxation, though, a few of them were bred for other things, spying, infiltration and seduction of specific targets that would notice a disguised Asari.

If that wasn't enough, I'd already started seeing just how different things were becoming thanks to the increase in numbers given by the rapid-fire births. The land around the spire had exploded with construction work as small complexes sprung into existence while production in automated factories was increased. Farms were up-scaled as to handle what was, essencially, a population boom, even with dozens of metric tons of foodstuffs preserved in stasis fields, my daughters seemed to be of the opinion that such things would run out within a few decades if food production wasn't upgraded to match the new demand. It was a wise idea, to always have the supplies to last, but some of my more militant daughters went to extremes with it since food and weapons were stockpiled so highly that entire bunker networks were built to store them. I had seen one of the many chambers in one such network, you could have fitted a Cruiser into the same space if you evacuated that chamber of all the stored food. Mechs were commonly used to run constant inventory checks and maintenance on the networks, but they were left alone for the most part, a back-up in case of mass attack and possible blockade.

Aside from that, technology had also advanced rapidly within the last century and a half, honestly surprising me at the level of rapid advancement that had taken place, though, maybe it shouldn't have been. I had basically handed my daughters a 'how-to' guide on Mass Effect physics along with taught them the basic designs for Mass Accelerator weapons, they had branched off from there, creating more weapons that ranged in all kinds of different aspects.

As a whole, my daughters seemed to favor a mix of Mass Effect-propelled wedges, or darts, of superheated Uranium Hexafluoride that were then covered in a magnetically charged film of Iron as the wedges came out the barrel of the weapon. This type of ammo was planned to be used commonly since it had shown a dual effectiveness against both organics and synthetics, along with some types of personal shields that had been recovered, though it depended on their quality. Other weapons used other types of ammo ranging from Mass-compressed bolts of deionized Plasma to particle packages that were flash compressed from a storage tank of Omni-gel before being fired. All three options were common for the standard issue weapons, though I knew that my daughters were leaning more towards using the Uranium Hexafluoride wedges as whole. More exotic weapons were also present, Particle-beam weapons were coming along as heavy weapons, Lance cannons mainly, but I had heard that Teluc had been making progress with an adaptive Particle wave-guide crystalline material. Then again, I hadn't heard much about _focusing_ the beam of unstable particles, hard radiation and Gamma rays, resulting in short-ranged cone blast that would make for a rather effective Shotgun or War cannons, especially since testing had shown that anything hit by these weapons would be lucky to even have _remains_.

More exotic weapons were also in the works, I had given Glailine the basic idea for one weapon of interest and she had run with it. The weapon was called a Hyperluminal Particle Accelerator, it was basically a miniature Mass Relay that would gather all the matter around it, usually the air, and then accelerate this matter to FTL speeds and flash convert it into plasma, unstable particles and a _lot_ of radiation. The prototype was already finished and having been tested over a decade ago, the result was that anything standing within 121 metres would just die, nothing surviving being hit by the ME tunnel, let alone the resulting mass of excited matter _within_ the tunnel. From 121 to 213 metres away, the targets would be looking at being blasted apart by a cone the formerly contained matter, over that would lead to a target experiencing what could only be called a shower of Grenades, and before dissipating into hard radiation at around the 274 metre mark.

The weapon itself was potent, useless in vacuum due to the initial design, but anything hit by it within atmo, whether it was inside a super heavy tank, in a castle or in a fucking starship, it was going to die and not have much left to even bury.

Of course, Glailine decided this wasn't enough and decided to experiment with the design, resulting in her, by accident, creating what could be considered one of the most powerful weapons in ME. She created a chamber that used plasma to flash-melt a nickel feedstock in an overpressurised environment to prevent it from transitioning into a gas. Magnetic bottling, helped by ME fields, contained the super-heated liquid metal while it was aligned with a target, once that was done, a Mass shunt, similar to what was in the Hyperluminal Particle Accelerator, fired the molten metal at FTL speeds.

The first testing of a design that was meant to be mounted on a Frigate resulted in a target made from ten metres of solid Silaris armor being cored from one end to the other, the beam of FTL-fired molten metal still travelling onwards without a significant decrease in speed before coming to a stop at a range of ten million kilometres from the firing point.

A day later and Glialine had Jan'sha smashing down the door to her lab, demanding both hand-held versions of this weapon along with having up-scaled versions mounted as the main guns of every ship in the Asari Navy. _And_ , if that wasn't enough, Jan'sha wanted to have these things mounted on the, now complete, orbital ring to replace the original defence guns, while still keeping the same calibur of barrels. Those guns had a bore size of over fifty cenitmtres across, firing shells of Bose-Einstein condensate-cooled Tungsten with a core of solid depleted Uranium, these shells could reach as fast as 0.75 C, three quarters of the speed of light.

Any ship unlucky enough to be hit by them, was not a ship that would be existing for very long. The fact that the orbital ring had two rings of 120 of these guns mounted along the sides of the ring, all that just meant that any attacker would suddenly find themselves suffering from a terminal existence failure.

Suddenly, I halted what I was doing as I felt something, drawing me out of my thoughts as I turned and looked just as the door opened to allow one of my grandchildren to enter. When she stepped in, I had to repress the urge to roll my eyes at what she did, along with what I felt through the Link, even as she dropped to one knee, her head dipped down and looking at the ground.

"High Ascended." She spoke, which _did_ lead to me rolling my eyes.

"You may rise." I commanded imperiously, repressing a sigh as the younger Maiden stood and I got a good look at her, specifically, her dark blue hardsuit that hugged her body like a second skin, a large cut having been taken down the middle of her chest, showing off her generous bust while the hardsuit opened at the neck with a high collar, showing off a golden necklace-collar that actually doubled as a Biotic amp. Pieces of metal were attached to her brow through chemical bonding, functioning as a projected HUB while she was armed with only one weapon, a Disciple Shotgun that was held behind her back and just above her well shaped ass and around her thin waist. She looked like a reincarnation of Samara from ME2, but with a different colour of armor, which was funny since I knew, through the Link, that her name actually _was_ Samara.

"You came with a message, Justicar Samara?" I asked, already knowing as much as well as her purpose thanks to the Link, drawing a wide-eyed look of surprise from her before she locked that down and bowed her head, trying to hide her surprise from me as I felt the half-smirk cross my face.

A result of some of my grandchildren looking into the old culture of the Asari also lead to a study of the old worship of Athame. Some of the more religious of them spotted a similarity between how Athame had brought enlightenment to the Asari and how I was doing it with my children, some of them had thought there were more... _Spiritual and religious_ overtures. Namely, some of them believed I was either Athame incarnated or a child of the Goddess, hence why some called me the 'High Ascended'.

This, among other things, also lead to the recreation of the Justicar Order as my 'Holy Servants and Warriors'. If the normal Asari, both my current daughters and grand-daughters, were loyal to me to a fault, then those that had chosen to leave their Houses were fanatically devoted to me, literally willing to commit suicide to please me and they took my ability to use the Link as one more piece of proof that I was blessed.

"Yes, High Ascended." Samara spoke simply, her head remaining bowed as she spoke, not looking at me for one reason or another, not that I minded. "The Ascended wish to meet with you in a discussion within the Grand Hall. They seek knowledge of your designs for the future and the Destiny of the people." I felt my lips twitch once more at that, the Justicars, having rebuilt their Code, also made wide use of ritualistic language when talking to either myself, or any of my daughters. Even going so far as creating an entire section devoted to how to talk with us along with keeping my existence from outsides, non-Asari.

"Convey a message to them; Tell them that I shall meet with them in an hour and a quarter to impart my designs unto thee and they, bring food and drink, for the discussion shall be long and I feel that much has yet to be done." I stated, my voice sounding imperious and filled with authority to the Justicar, but my lips twitched even as I spoke. I had no idea why I had decided to speak in the same, almost, ritual language as the Justicars, but it did make interactions interesting, especially among the few that were called 'Everchosen', those that had 'curried my favor' and could talk with me without the ritual language, most of whom were immediately promoted to high-ranking positions within the Justicar Order even as they sorted themselves out into what would become the main law enforcers of the Asari Sovereignty.

"At once, High Ascended." She bowed her head a bit deeper and bowed even further at the waist before turning on the spot and leaving the room, the door closing behind her even as I could feel her moving away, my long-since augmented hearing picking up the click of her heeled boots, I shook my head at that. Honestly, the only reason that they even had heels like those was simply due to some thinking of it being needed to talk with me, regardless of what I actually said. Why I didn't order them to remove the damned things was simply because I couldn't be bothered, that and they could be retracted into the back of the boots when needed.

"The only easy day was yesterday..." I muttered to myself as I pinched the bridge of my nose, quickly flicking a button on the other side of the room with a light Biotic Push before watching as the steam rising from my Anvil froze in mid-air thanks to a Stasis field while the flames of my Forge did likewise. Reaching over and grabbing a jacket from a spare chair, I moved to leave my workshop to talk with my daughters, though, not before getting a quick shower and a change of clothing.

It would help me relax for a moment, if only to ensure I wasn't day dreaming about other pet projects I was working on. I glanced off to the other side of the room at that thought, seeing something half hidden by a sheet of white cloth, a smile on my face as I looked at it.

It was going to be beautiful.

 **XXX**


	6. 6: Rock dropped in the river

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, this is purely for recreational purposes.**

 **XXX**

"Who are they?" I commanded, my face impassive as I looked down at the kneeling form of a group of three Humans, each of them wearing casual clothing, thick, layered and with an under layer that could double as a vacuum-sealed space suit with a helmet slammed on to it in a moment. Out of the three men, the one on the left was the least injured of the three, only having a black eye and swelling around his jaw from one Commando hitting him sufficiently hard with the butt of her rifle. The one right in the middle of them, the 'highest ranking' one of them, was missing his left arm from the elbow down, his face was also horribly scarred from being exposed to Warp-fire while showing off raw muscle tissue and spots of white showing through, especially around the jaw, left side of the head and a bit of the neck on the same side. The last man, on the other hand, was a mess, his hands shaking and his entire body twitching and tensing erratically, he was also missing his right leg from the waist down.

Honestly, all of these were injuries that could have been easily fixed by the medical science of the nation I had built from the ground up for the last three centuries. Of course, that all depended on the fact that I _allowed_ it to happen, and, unfortunately for these men, _I was not_.

"Pirates and Slavers, Mother. _State-sponsored_ Pirates and Slavers." Jan'sha growled out through gritted teeth as she sat at her own throne in the Great Hall of the Towering Heaven Spire, the name given to the massive totem of Silaris and steel that I called home. Around the room was a series of 21 thrones with one being a significant bit above the rest while a lower platform stood in the middle of the room, where the three men were current kneeling with their hands, or hand, bound behind their backs. In terms of order, from where I sat, the room went counter-clockwise to show my daughters in relation to which order they were born in. It didn't really matter, but that was how they had decided to sit themselves.

"Explain." I stated simply, never taking my eyes off the three men as I glared down at them, none of them dared move from my gaze even as they glanced to Jan'sha, who was wearing full armor, wondering what we were saying as we spoke in High Thessian, a native Asari language which, among the original Asari, would have been considered a dead language.

"They appear to be what remains of an ancient colony from over three thousand years ago, during the time of the Great War. During said war, their colony lost contact with the rest of the Galaxy before disappearing, forgotten, along with a significant number of other colonies that never got around to re-establishing contact with the rest of the Galaxy beyond the Tingel arm. During the time between then and now, at some point, the legitimate governments fell and were replaced with a feudal system of warlords and such that has been in place ever since. These three belong to one of the closer ones that had been scouting for resource rich systems for the last decade before finding this system. That one-" Jan'sha pointed at the man in the middle with a hint of disgust. "-saw the ships flying around, believed they were primitive despite their size, numbers and capabilities, and believed that he could capture some of their crew and bring them back as slaves, set himself up as a new Warlord while claiming this system for himself."

I felt a sneer cover my lips at that. Utter fool of a man, I already knew most of the details through the Link, but getting a second accounting of it helped solidify details that I might have missed from my own investigation. The idiots had charged right down the barrels of a Patrol wolfpack, composed of five Frigates two Light Cruisers and a Heavy Cruiser, admittedly, they had a numerical advantage since they had come with a large fleet of seventeen ships, but those ships were old, outdated and how they had managed to keep them in service was anyone's guess. Seven of the ships were old Hammerhead-class Cruisers, three equally old Valor-class Cruisers, five KT-400 Military Droid Carriers, each carrying four hundred Sentinel Droids, and at least another two empty Wanderer-class Transports, the cargo holds of which were filled with empty cages and the like.

Standing up from my own throne, I decided to end this because, quite honestly, I was rather offended by what these fuckers believed they could get away with, their arrogance for a group of barely civilized Pirates and thugs was severely inflated. It needed a good stomping on, one that I was all too willing to give it, especially with the information that I had in my mind, especially after ripping whatever last vestiges of knowledge from these three men, leaving them with the thinking ability of a vegetable, collectively. Walking down, I noted how Jan'sha followed me, a slight quirk of the lips present even as she came down, probably thinking that I had something planned, which I did, while the Justicars that were present within the room stood at attention, weapons of one kind or another already drawn and aimed at the three men.

"I must admit, when we entered space, I believed that we would encounter a much more peaceful contact with those out there... What we encounter, instead, is nothing more than a band of slavers and a would-be Warlord that has become drunk on his own ego." I remarked, switching to basic, I smiled slightly as I watched the eyes of the three men widen before the leading one, the 'would-be Warlord', narrowed his eyes at me. He made to rise before a firm hand grasped his shoulder and forced him back down.

"Kriffing whore-faced, _Bitch!_ " He hissed through his teeth, wincing in pain from his knees hitting the ground once more as I tilted my head, letting him continue even as one Justicar looked about ready to blast his head off for that comment alone. I waved her off, just to be on the safe side. "You think you're all that, huh? Well... Let me tell you something, Bitch-face. Even if you kill us, the others will know what happened, we're well passed when we were due to call back for a status update. They'll be on their way... _With a fleet_... A fleet numbering in the _hundreds!_ "

The man, even with his face burned off along with most of his flesh and in pain, seemed to be trying to grin in some belief that he was in a better position than we were. How wrong he was...

"And, I suppose, that you are about to tell me that, if we surrender... That, if we beg upon your mercy... That you will convince them to spare us... In exchange for our servitude, of course." I remarked lightly as I turned to Jan'sha, who was smirking to herself and biting her lower lip as she and I watched the other two suddenly grinning, or trying to in one case, as they thought that the situation, somehow, had been reversed.

Arrogance, born of ignorance, it seemed, was what drove these men to make such a fatal mistake, especially while attempting to intimidate myself and my daughters.

"Well, when you put it like that, Whore, why don't you just bend over now and we'll all just have a grand old time." The man to the right, who I had been mentally calling 'twitchy', spoke with a slight lisp to his voice, his lips bending and forcing themselves to become a cross between a sneer and a leer as his eyes seemed to scan my body. I repressed a shudder as I turned to him in return before offering a single, thin, cold, smile...

He didn't even get a chance to scream in pain before a Subsume I had just created had increased the Gravity he was experiencing to well over twenty Gs. He was reduced to a smear of red, white and various colours of stained cloth within an instant, the other two jumping as a result of the suddeness of the action, along with how there wasn't any obvious cause for whatever had happened. I turned back to the two other men before looking down at them, that same smile still on my face as they paled significantly.

"I must say that, truthfully, arrogance and ego the size of what I see in both you two along with your... _Late_ -comrade, are rather unbecoming for beings with so little power." I commented right before a Slam lifted the man on the other side of the would-be Warlord up, off the ground before slamming him into the ground hard enough that he was reduced to yet another red stain on the otherwise light blue, white and silver metal and stone flooring. That little demonstration left the warlord shaking as he turned his head between his now-dead men before looking back at me, his eyes wide and full of fear that was as clear as day to see. A subtle gesture, and he was suddenly floating in mid-air, eyes level with mine as my face remained the same even as I crossed one arm under my chest while reaching out with the other, gently tracing my fingers over his cheek even as he froze like a dear in the headlights, paralyzed with fear. I'd happily admit that I was attractive, the lust in the eyes of these men was easy to see, but seeing me butcher his two remaining men in front of him was enough to get him to realise that just because I was beautiful, did _not_ mean that I couldn't kill him with a thought.

"Please..." He begged, his voice coming out as a whimper as I felt my smile grow ever-so-slightly.

"It appears that I will not be the one begging for mercy, but that hardly matters today. After all..." I leaned forwards as another casual gesture locked his limbs in Stasis along with the air around his neck, ensuring that he would not be able to move. "Mercy will be the last thing on your mind when I'm done with you... Embrace Eternity." I whispered as I held his face in place even as I spoke into his ear, my eyes flashing black as the Meld was made. I surged through his mind, seeing and interacting with the natural defences that were always present for any given individual, but blew right passed them, crashing barrier after barrier as I ripped into his mind before pulling out after I had ripped every memory, every skill and every last shred of information from his mind. My Biotics cut out a moment after I was finished, the end result being the last Human male dropping to the ground, foam bubbling up from his mouth even as his eyes rolled back into his head, what was visible of them was unfocused, vacant and glassy, signaling his cessation as a sentient and sapient being and leaving him as little more than a barely living piece of meat. I glanced down at the wasting flesh with apathy.

"Can someone please deal with that?" I asked as I turned around and walked back to Jan'sha, who was waiting for me a few steps from the centre of the room. I didn't even jump as I heard the roar of a shotgun, probably blasting the head off the now-present corpse.

"What is the status of the fleet?" I asked Jan'sha as she brought up an Omni-tool and smiled.

"Over 550 ships, 350 Frigates, 150 Light Cruisers and fifty Heavy Cruisers. All of them fully armed and staffed with crew, mostly Mechs, but the Captains are all Asari. All the Frigates and Light Cruisers are still their original specifications, but the Heavy Cruisers have been upgraded. Teluc already went through them all and replaced the forty millimetre Heavy APP Mass Accelerator cannons with Thanix Cannons of the same bore and arrangement, so that will be another edge over whatever these Pirates have."

"157 Hammerhead-class Cruisers, 93 Thranta-class Cruisers, 37 Valor-class Cruisers, just over five hundred armed Wanderer-class Transports with another thousand other ships, not counting Fighters, most of which will have had weak, homemade Turbolasers bolted on to them along with a generator just powerful enough to make them work, but of little utility otherwise. All of which is currently spread across three systems to defend, or oppress, twenty planets that all belong to various Warlords." I rattled the information off easily, it was still fresh in my mind as I smiled slightly. "Another good thing was that the idiot's attack on us was meant to be his ticket into getting a domain of his own, no one but his Captains even knew what was happening. There is no attack coming."

"Perfect." Jan'sha noted, purring at how everything seemed to come together. "That means that if we strike them once everything is in place, then we can come at them with the element of surprise on our side."

"True, but should we go with such a heavy handed strategy to begin with?" Larahin noted as she stood from her own throne and walked down to the centre of the room. "For that matter, do they even have anything that we really need?"

"Multiple Tibanna producing Gas Giants, a number of still working, some Great War-Era weapons and suits of armor that are still in vaguely good condition, dozens of wrecks that are floating around, being used as a source of spare parts while a few of the smaller ships have already been used for raw materials over the centuries. Probably the leftovers from a big battle here, maybe even one of the first battles that took place in the Tingel arm." I remarked simply as Larahin nodded in thought at that before Jan'sha spoke once more.

"The raw materials would be of use, especially since we might be able to use them as a measuring stick to compare with where our own armor and weapons rank up against them, especially when compared to modern technology to see how large the gap in technologies is." Malany spoke as she came down from her own throne before clasping her chin in thought.

"That still leaves the question of whether or not we _should_ actually bother invading and conquering them, let alone the question of how we would actually enforce our rule of them since our total population is just a little under fifty thousand at this point in time. Hardly enough to put down a possibly revolting population of millions, on _multiple_ planets." Larahin retorted, getting a half shrug from Jan'sha at that.

"No one said that we really needed to conquer them, only that they shouldn't be a potential threat to us. Simply wiping them out with orbital bombardments would do the trick." That got a short from Malany and Larahin in turn before Malany spoke once more.

"True, but that would ruin a lot of planets that we might have wanted to settle in the future. Sure, it would be the most effective method, but we'd need to still tidy up the mess that was made in the aftermath. If nothing else, we could just add them to the current population of Indentured Servants and carry out mass Poly-Melds to quickly ensure their obedience to the Asari Sovereignty." Larahin smiled at that thought.

"It _would_ give us a rather large work force that could be put to use doing any number of tasks for us." Larahin noted as I nodded in amusement at that.

"Already thinking about using them to infiltrate the Republic enmasse?" I asked, getting a smirk at that, as Larahin crossed her arms and turned to face me even with the smirk growing on her face.

"With even a few million infiltrators? Oh Yes... The first generation of them would be easy enough to set up, just Meld with them, implant them with Ghost-hack rigs, Greyboxes and self-replicating Nano-machines linked to a QEC. We'd give them a ship, hack into the Republic database and make sure they exist before letting them spread out and infiltrate, convincing people to go along with certain views while forming groups of like-minded individuals into what could be called Cults. We could have those Cults worship an image of any kind, one that we just _happen_ to fit, giving us access to an already established network and range of influence." Malany gave a slow clap at that, even as she grinned.

"A rather well thought out plan, though, I can see one glaring flaw with it. Most races only live for a century, a century and a half if their lucky, how do you plan to have these infiltrators manage anything of note before we arrive?" Larahin grinned at that.

"By having the nano-machines in them replicate only within their bodies, and passing themselves on to the next generator as they progress. Once in a child, they would get to work installing Greyboxes and the various other systems as needed. If one of the infiltrators dies, then the nano-machines would simply self-destruct along with disassembling any implants to ensure that nothing could be traced back to us. Sensor jammers and auto-hack systems would be used to ensure that anyone trying to scan them would find nothing out of order." Jan'sha nodded at that.

"Sounds good. That just leaves us with the problem of actually conquering them." Jan'sha quipped dryly as a few other girls snorted, the Justicars remaining silent for the matter even as we continued to plan amongst ourselves.

"Of course." I started, my voice too innocent to be true while I looked at my daughters. "We aren't fighting them because of resources. We're fighting them to avenge the lives of the 43 young Maidens that suffered terrible deaths when they attacked that poor, defenceless Patrol group."

"Of course, Mother." My daughters replied in a similar tone and with solemn nods, though, I will admit that the effect was ruined by the various grins and smirks that some of them wore.

I was mostly just wondering how I had managed to keep a vaguely straight face while saying that...

 **XXX**

"Targets are within range of our Thanix cannons, High General. Orders?" Asked one of the few Asari crewmen on her ship. Jan'sha didn't give any orders right away as she leaned forwards from her seat, looking at the viewing screen ahead of her and over the shoulders of the pilot, co-pilot and three weapon coordinators. Ahead of them, as they decelerated into the system, was a large, but scattered fleet, six planets with another two Gas Giants, all of them inhabited on some level or another with the Gas Giants being home to massive space stations that reached deep into the atmosphere to suck up fresh harvests of Tibanna. In orbit, ships moved around to transport items from place to place, often to simply keep the various ships in working order given their age and poorly made quality of repair patchworks, or the poor quality of parts used to make them.

Still, that didn't mean that they were useless, only that they were far, _far_ less capable compared to a factory fresh version that could have been created during the Republic's apex as a military power. This was even clearer when none of the Pirate vessels reacted to the Asari battlegroup as it returned to normal space from FTL, well inside the sensor range of the ancient ships, if their sensors had been working at full capacity. This was, perhaps, the greatest fuck-up for what was to come, as it allowed the fleet of over one hundred Frigates, fifty Light Cruisers and ten Heavy Cruisers to appear within the system without even a token patrol to attack them or warn the rest of the system.

It would be the first of many mistakes that the Pirates made.

"Have the Frigates form into Hunting packs of five and to start moving through the outer edges of the system towards the sun, have them focus on any fleeing vessels as a priority before moving on, disable if possible by shooting weapons, engines and communication systems, but I will not complain if they have to go for kill shots. Light Cruisers are to stick with the Heavy Cruisers as we move into the system, have them cover us as all ships release Turret Drones. Have them priorities larger ships first before moving downwards. The only exception to this is the Fighters, bombers and smaller shuttles, I don't care too much if those are destroyed so long as they fail to leave the system." Jan'sha ordered quickly as she turned away from the crewman, one of her own daughters as well, before turning to one manning the communication/Infowar suite.

"What is the status of the other fleets?" The House Matriarch demanded as she glanced to one side, noting her daughter with approval as she, like the others, was wearing a full suit of Aegis armor, the helmet retracted into her collar for the time being as weapons remained mag-clamped to her body.

"They have reported that all systems are green and that they have arrived in their target systems without difficulty. I have already sent them copies of your orders, they are merely waiting for you to send the word to begin." The comm. tech announced, not taking her eyes off the Haptic display even as she started the process of queuing up Infowar programs to attack the enemy systems once the fighting started.

"Good. Tell them to begin on my mark." Jan'sha remarked before turning back to the screen before her with a grin on her face. Looking at the haptic displays around her, she noted the fleet already moving, spreading out as Frigates used short-range FTL jumps to rapidly maneuver around the system, range, once limited by static build-up, was now much less restricted thanks to the inclusion of Neutrino Radiators. Fuel was now the only thing that really mattered, or, more accurately, the power being supplied to the Eezo Core responsible for the FTL system functioning, the fact that most ships used a mixture of M/AM reactors, Fusion power plants and dozens of small Eezo cores simply meant that running out of fuel, in the short term, was not an issue.

Range favored them, as did their ability to 'flash-step' across the void and out of the way of return fire, allowing them to keep the enemy at range even as they tried to close the distance. That thought alone was more than enough to cause a feral smirk to cross her lips even as she spoke the words that would spell the end for this coalition of Pirates and Slavers.

"Open fire."

The Void was suddenly filled with light and, if it could be heard through the vacuum of space, the screams of the soon to be dying.

 **XXX**

To the Pirates of the Aberosa system, one of three systems of the Coalition of Mutual Self-Interest, things seemed to go from normal to hell almost as if someone had flipped a switch to turn off the lights before flipping every damned table in the room.

While everyone was still having a drink at them, to boot.

Dozens of beams of red light blasted out of the darkness of space faster than their sensors could even register before slamming into any number of Cruisers. The armor and shields of said Cruisers offering little to no protection as the Shields didn't even trigger, and what few that did trigger weren't much of an obstacle, before hitting armor-plated hulls and blowing straight through them like they weren't even there. More than one ship was unlucky enough to be hit by a piercing shot that had snapped one ship in half before hitting, and snapping another in half while a third, in one rare occasion, found itself nearly snapped in half by being lucky enough to be out of position. Said ship was a Hammerhead-class cruiser and was only saved in the fact that the upper front section was sheared off by the insanely powerful beam of death that had appeared from outside of their sensor range before blasting a hole in the fleets in system, each belonging to a different Warlord, before they even could figure out what was going on.

A moment later, while they were still reeling from the sudden strike at them, they found themselves facing unknown ships, looking like rings with sticks welded to them, appearing from nowhere, a slight spike in energy, but nothing similar to the tell-tale flash of Hyperspace. Moving in groups of five, the smallest of these ships advanced, guns blazing as ships found themselves being ripped apart, engines, weapons and communications, strangely enough, were the only things targeted by these unknowns before they moved on.

The Pirates were familiar enough with their own tactics to see what the aliens wanted, to take them alive for whatever purposes they may have, and most either refused to allow it to happen without a fight, or refused to even give the aliens a chance to take them. Dozens of ships immediately turned to either face the aliens or get ready to run, the former barely lasted long enough to get into weapon range of the alien craft, their ships being blasted apart by incoming fire while being left to drift through the void as the alien craft seemed to jump around space in ways that didn't seem possible. Fighters were often better suited to getting closer to the ships, but what few that did make it were immediately swarmed by odd silver orb-like machines with guns mounted on either side of them, the end result was the fighters dying in droves. Shuttles and transports trying to flee the system weren't any better, the former was often just shot down by the Orbs, or crashed into by them, while the latter experienced sudden failure for their systems to even respond, all systems simply cutting out and leaving them with emergency Life-support systems being active.

Within thirty minutes, the entire system's fleet, all six fleets of ships, belonging to the six Warlords of each planet, were dead in space and either left the crew trapped within their own ships... Or dead. From viewports, the crewmen could look out and see the strange ships moving passed them, some floated close by as they moved around, using Tractor beams to pull all the ships to one side before setting up a group to patrol them. While that was happening, the heavier ships seemed to split up and move towards the various planets in the system. From their ships-turned-cages, they could look out as what looked like Shuttles flew down to the planets below, leaving them only to wallow in despair.

Whatever these beings wanted, it was rather obvious by now that they were going to get it, their objections be damned.

 **XXX**

"Kirff it all to the Nine Hells and back!"

Alec Devac was _not_ having a good day. This couldn't have been more clear as he tried to take a peek out of cover only to be forced to duck as another impact hit the top of the Durasteel crate hard enough to almost rock it over, crushing him even as he popped his arm over the top of the crate to blaze away with the heavy Blaster Rifle in his hands.

Honestly, he had to wonder why he was even bothering, even as another soldier dropped to the ground, blood flowing out from a gap in the neck of the armor even as he looked down to see the rather large hole placed in the middle of the T-shaped visor. The enemy they were fighting wasn't just another band of Soldiers under the command of another Warlord, no, these were skilled, determined and utterly devastating in their application of brute force. All of them were coming to the fight in full armor, stuff that most would thick wouldn't look out of place on a tank and with the weapons to match, and whatever they fired, it sure as hell wasn't some kind of Blaster. Most of their weapons seemed to favor solid, if small, bullets, on the surface it seemed primitive, but he had seen the aftermath of more than one soldier being downed by those, supposedly, 'primitive' weapons, most were lucky if a glancing hit didn't take off their limbs or blow a hole in them large enough for someone to poke their head through. Which, was especially true when medics had found that the metal of the projectiles was both radioactive as well as capable of giving them Heavy Metal poisoning, two things that they were incapable of treating, especially on a battlefield.

And, of course, these aliens didn't just have those, but were also packing all kinds of other weapons from their own version of Blasters, that seemed to pack twice as much power in every shot, to beam-like weapons that cooked and burned everything that they touched. One of his men was unlucky enough to be close by with a medical scanner to one of the few survivors to one such weapon, a quick scan showed that he had been exposed to enough radiation to ensure that he would be lucky to live passed two weeks, if that, and would be utter agony for the entire time.

"RUN!" _**BOOM!**_

Alec was suddenly cut out from his thoughts as he heard a voice screaming from a barricade ahead of him, between him and the enemy. Looking up, he saw one of the metal, ad hoc barriers being blown open by a massive blast of dark blue and black energy that ripped through the durasteel plating, those too close to the blast found themselves being burned alive as their armor was instantly melted by the intense heat generated by the blast. However, what happened next was more than enough for Alec to see just how outmatched they really were as a figure walked straight through the blast, seemingly uncaring of the still raging Plasma fires that remained.

Peeking over his cover, Alec saw the attacker as said attacker seemed to pause for a moment as it looked around, giving him a clear view of the alien's form.

It stood tall, well over the average man with a body covered in thick, angular plates of armor that wouldn't have looked out of place on any of the few armored vehicles that were still in use by the various Warlords. The armor itself was all hard angles, sharp corners and flat, triangular panels that rarely, if ever, met at a right angle to one another, under that was a smooth undersuit of a uniform black and grey with lines of dark blue that almost looked like circuits while that same blue seemed to outline every major plate of metal on the body as it all pulsed softly upwards towards the high mantle that covered the entire neck of the being, extending to almost the same level as where a Human's ears would be while leaving the front section only coming up to halfway up the neck. That same mantle extended outwards to two massive pauldrons that further extended outwards to increase the width of the figure while a screen of fabric seemed to descend down from the shoulders, obscuring both arms as they hung by the sides of the figure, before wrapping around the figure like a cape or a semi-opened cloak. On the fabric, there was a eye-watering patterns made from non-Euclidean geometry that hurt his eyes to look at for any more than a few moments before he was forced to look away from them, even as his eyes were drawn back to them by that same pulsing of dark blue that dominated the black armor plating.

However, the most striking detail was the head, the helmet. The armor-plated cover of the alien's face and head was smooth, shaped like a slightly elongated human helmet but utterly featureless except for a pair of bright blue optics that pulsed in time with those strange, circuit-like designs. These designs forming into two likes that ran parallel to each other, over either eye before moving onwards before joining together on a leaf-shaped plate that extended outwards and backwards from the temples of the helmet. The plate widened outwards as it moved away from the temples before narrowing into a point at a distance from the helmet, just slightly above the top of the helmet.

Honestly speaking, the figure on its own was pretty damned intimidating, in Alec's personal opinion, but the fact that the being seemed to carry some kind of sheathed sword by her side only made it more dangerous since he had seen what these aliens could do with their 'swords'.

Especially when he saw one of the lower ranking soldiers use one to cut an armored walker in half from front to back. However, if that wasn't bad enough, the air around this being seemed to fizzle and warp as though the figure was standing in the middle of a heat-haze, only made worse by the sizzling of the duracrete under its feet and the fact that a nearby corpse seemed to be either evaporating or dissolving as he watched, armor, blaster, flesh and all.

It was, quite possibly, the most terrifying thing he had ever witnessed in his life.

"Fallback! We need to fallback! Now!" He shouted as he never let his gaze shift from the figure even as he brought his Heavy Blaster to bear. He knew he was going to die, but the least he could do was to allow his men to escape to prepare a more thorough defence in depth within the Warlord's Palace. Blinking as the figure turned to him, regarding him, as he opened fire with his rifle, the figure didn't bother moving as he fired, the bolts of plasma firing through the air before impacting the same shield that seemed to surround every single one of the aliens, literally fizzling out of existence even as he stood and kept firing. The figure didn't react for a long moment, even as one hand seemed to grasp the handle of its impressive sword, before raising a gauntleted hand towards him.

Alec Devac kept firing, or trying to, even as he was ripped off of his feet and pulled towards the armored alien faster than he could react, a weight wrapping around his neck before he saw a flash of black steel.

Then he saw no more...

Becoming yet another cooling corpse in a city filled with corpses.

 **XXX**

Looking away from her latest kill, Jan'sha turned her attention back to the Palace that she was advancing on, one of the strongholds of the supposed 'Warlords'. Truthfully, it wasn't really that impressive, a rather large mass of Duracrete and Permacrete with a plating of Durasteel thrown over the top of it and coated in a rather dazzling and showy mixture of colours, including bright gold. The sides of the structure were covered with a dozen terraces and balconies, hanging gardens were also present, while a massive gate of Durasteel blocked the main way into the compound's heart, easily a full metre thick.

Yes, the Palace of this worlds Warlord was impressive to look at, but Jan'sha didn't care so much about that. No, she cared more about the tactical layout of the entire place, which, according to deep-penetrating scans, was an absolute nightmare for any kind of defensive action. Dozens of entry points, hundreds of easy lines of sight for the attackers while the defenders would suffer from having too little cover, virtually now choke-points that were easily held, and not a single weapons emplacement to speak of. The only reason they even _needed_ to enter the building was to deactivate the still barely working planetary shields that had their command centre buried under the Palace.

Not to mention the retrieval of half a dozen examples of Great War-era technology that were still in good condition, mostly from the fact that they were rarely, if ever, used by the fools that had become the Warlord of this planet.

Even then, Jan'sha was half-tempted to give the order for her daughters to pull back and order a full scale orbital bombardment of the Palace to simply deal with what few combatants remained of the original force that had tried, and failed horribly, to resist them. Still, that wasn't to say that even with her daughters and herself washing over them like a wave, that they hadn't managed to inflict so measure of damage in turn. No, seven of her children lay dead from the combined attacks of a number of Heavy weapons, adding to the Butcher's bill of this conflict. She was just glad that the Justicars, the Mechs, and the daughters of the other Houses were present as well, both to beef up their numbers as well as to crush further opposition. Still, at the end of the day, it meant that Jan'sha had already lost over twenty daughters with the other thirty deaths being split between the other Houses that had allowed their children to join what was to become the military of the Asari Sovereignty.

Even as she carried on, walking towards the now-sealed entrance of the Palace, Jan'sha hoped to end this conflict as quickly as possible, if only to spare a few more of her daughters a needless death at the hand of these barbarians. Then again, Jan'sha had her doubts that, even with these idiots trying to entrench themselves, that they would fall in short order, they just had too many disadvantages to even _consider_ being able to outlast their attackers. The biggest of which was simply the fact that every Asari soldier had Biotics, the ability to manipulate Dark Energy, an ability that an individual would not be able to even _see_ unless they had properly tuned their HUDs to, or had evolved such a trait, as the Asari had.

Looking ahead, Jan'sha smiled under her helmet as she saw the flare of yet another Biotic Flare detonating upon Durasteel doors, blasting a significant section off of the, now, rapidly crumbling doors as Mechs jogged past her to create a crossfire. Her smile widened slightly as she glanced down at her still sheathed Warp sword, it was, like her armor, a birthday gift from her Mother.

And, as she grabbed the hilt and pulled the metre long, wave-shaped blade free from its armored cover, Jan'sha knew that it was time to finally see her blade, Wave-Erodes-All, bloodied with the deaths of any who would dare to stand before her.

Needless to say, many would die to this blade.

 **XXX**

My eyes snapped open instantly as I leaned back into the large throne-like chair within my private observation platform at the top of my Tower, the massive room giving me a breath-taking view of the rapidly expanding city below as I smiled at what I felt through the Link. Jan'sha was just finishing up the last of the Pirate and Slavers, I didn't even think that they would be able to last a few minutes longer with the only reason that the 'battle' had taken over five hours already being that the Pirates were simply more wide spread. I felt her joy at finally being able to use the gifts I had given her, her Warp Sword as a gift for her first century of life while the armor came with the beginning of her second century, Jan'sha had cherished both gifts greatly and was currently making great use of them.

Suddenly, my smile turned into a frown as I looked just a bit deeper into the Link, finding the broken connections along with the residue emotions of those that had died as a result of this battle. I felt the regret and anger that Jan'sha and her daughters felt for the deaths of their daughters and sisters, respectively. I sighed at that, while I didn't like it, it was an unavoidable truth of war that people died, there was no real way to prevent it, only to minimize it on your own side while ensuring that you maximized it for your opponent, something that my children and grandchildren were doing quite effectively at the moment while letting the Mechs soak up the heaviest return fire and function as little more than 'meat' shields, for lack of a better term.

Still, with so many dead already, especially this early on in the development of what was effectively a new race, I knew that it would be difficult and would slow down the effect of the population bloom that had been present until recently.

Humming to myself, I smiled slightly as I considered the problem before looking at the best solution, namely the use of Cloning to function as artificial wombs. Truthfully, I was hesitant to even go for it straight away, especially since Asari born through these methods required a significant amount of care and attention to them to ensure that they grew and developed fully. Not only that, but to ensure that they were fully developed, you also had to run around-the-clock tests and scans just to ensure that everything was working as it should. I could get around that problem through the use of Medical Mechs and Droids, but it would take a fair bit of time to develop the facilities and infrastructure needed to properly allow for the use of artificial wombs in massive numbers. Luckily, there were still a number of rooms in my section of the Tower, completely empty and currently slated to be used as little more than storage space. I could easily have these spaces repurposed as areas for the artificial wombs, Cloning banks and secret elevators to take the released new-borns out into the city with all the needed information having been downloaded into their minds.

A bonus of this idea was simply that I could start creating large numbers of Ardat-Yakshi to incorporate into my personal guard. Creating them was a simple piece of genetic work to switch a few genes along with activating a few key pieces before allowing the resulting mutation to be born. Another interesting note was that Melding with an AY was only lethal if the AY was the one to initiate the Meld, mainly due to their own nature, but if another Asari was the one that initiated the Meld, so long as it was a low-powered Meld, then it would work perfectly fine. I was rather amazed with this little note of trivia, but kept it to myself as I revised a few things with some notes I had, namely things to do with the idea for my Blackhand. I smirked at that thought, it would certainly make them a _lot_ more dangerous.

Standing up, I turned as I felt a presence coming towards the room I stood in. The door opened a moment later to reveal a group of three Justicars with Justicar Samara in the middle of them, all three of which were walking together with her being slightly ahead of her two fellows. A quick glance at the three, both with my eyes along with through the Link and I knew that they had just come back from the battlefields across the 'Coalition of Mutual Self-interest', both due to their own satisfaction at completing their objectives along with the few marks that were present across their armored Hardsuits. They came to a stop a few paces from me before dropping to their knees with their heads staring firmly at either the floor, or, in Samara's case, my feet.

"High Ascended. We come bearing a message from the Ascended General that stalks the former fields of battle where the Heathens learned not to dare question your might. The War Ascended asks for your Council and wisdom in how to deal with the remaining Heathens that begged for your mercy and forgiveness." Samara stated in an almost ritualistic style of speech, I hummed in thought as I considered that. Reaching out, I felt Jan'sha again before looking through her thoughts on the matter. I found that my daughter was not truly concerned about what happened next with the inhabitants of the planet, but she wished to know what to do with them now that they had been forced to bend the knee, as it were. Within her mind, I could easily see a few ideas of what to do with them, though, due to her own military mindset, Jan'sha was rather in favor of simply gathering everything of worth before carrying out an equivalent of a Base Delta Zero on every planet that was once a part of the Coalition. Personally, I understood her reasoning, both to remove a potential threat and to remove a potential strain of resources, but those were merely idle thoughts that had swam to the surface, not serious considerations.

"Have her gather the Unenlightened together before searching through them for those that catch her eye, she and her House may take these Chosen as her Spoils of War while those that remain will be divided up into gatherings before being Enlightened by the hands of my children, Malany the Cunning and Larahin the Seductive." I commanded simply as the three of them bowed slightly before standing, turning around and leaving the room without another word, clearly hearing a dismissal once I finished speaking. I turned back to the window once more even as the door shut, enjoying the view as I saw the distant sun reaching the edge of the horizon, the sky being lit up in hues of orange, red and yellow that simply looked amazing. I had already seen plenty of art work coming from Larahin's house, many of which made heavy use of the contrast between the setting sun and the still active lands, often including pieces of cloud cover while showing large amounts of stars above, as though to show all phases of the day at once.

Still, the art work, while spectacular, never really seemed to be nearly as good as the real thing, especially when one could simply sit back with some tea and watch as the world went by.

Then again, I knew that I had the luxury of time, unlike so many others in the Galaxy.

People that didn't even know that they were _running out_ of time...

 **XXX**


	7. 7: Eroded away with the tide

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, this is purely for recreational purposes.**

 **XXX**

 **[Warning! Lemon ahead!]**

Jan'sha would admit that, when her Mother ordered her to conquer the Pirate states and take control of them, that _this_ wouldn't be the way that the former servants of the under the control of the Pirates would react.

"I'm sorry, could you please repeat that?" Jan'sha asked as she leaned back within her large lounge room, currently seated on a large sofa that was next to an impressive projection of the planet below, along with that, she had already stripped out of her armor and into a comfortable Sport's Bra and a pair of short-shorts, both showing off her rather impressive figure, reminiscent of her Mother. Across from her, sitting in the middle of the room, was her only guest, a Human female wearing a dark blue and silver dress with the back cut off and showing off her sides while a large cut went down from the neck to just above the waist with another cut from the side of her waist to the bottom of her dress, around the shin while her feet were dressed in high-heels that raised her up. Of course, this only helped to show off the woman's impressive figure.

Standing around two metres tall without her heels on, the woman was tall, well muscled and lightly tanned with a well developed figure. Long, smooth legs came up from well-proportioned feet before disappearing under the cloth of the dress, leading to wide hips, a thin waist and a flat, washboard stomach covered with well trained muscles. Advancing up the body, it was easy to see the woman's generous chest, easily a size bigger than herself and most Asari, going into an E-cup as the perky mounds seemed to strain against the fabric of the material. Moving further up the body, seeing the exposed shoulders connecting to supple arms and gentle hands, came a long neck that lead to the head of the woman. Her face was well sculpted, with delicate features, an aristocratic jaw line with high cheekbones and a thin, button nose. Her eyes were rounded, almond shapes that proudly displayed the green orbs within while her red hair fell in a Pixie cut over her right side, covering one eye while a long pony tail trailed its way down her back.

"As you wish, My Lady." The Woman, having introduced herself as Nyrian Brexx, stated as she bowed slightly at the waist, the fabric of her dress doing very little to hide her body from Jan'sha's eyes as she took in details and made note of a few things here and there.

"Due to your conquest of Babriaxe, we, the Family of Brexx, wish to swear fealty to you as the new Warlord of the planet, as we have always done whenever one Warlord lineage has risen to replace an older one, to seize power." Nyrian explained with a neutral face as Jan'sha considered that with a blank expression of her own. However, on the inside, the Eldest Daughter was smirking like the cat that caught the canary. Her Mother had already said that she was allowed to gather spoils from her conquest, this was just much sooner than she had anticipated doing so. Leaning forwards slightly, Jan'sha looked at the 21 year old woman with a considering gaze as her eyes roamed over the her barely clad form.

"Tell me about your family, the Family of Brexx." Jan'sha stated simply as the woman nodded without an objection, either spoke or non-verbal.

"The Family of Brexx was created millennia ago by one of the first Warlords of Babriaxe. He wished to create a steady supply of servants for both himself and any of his descendents while also allowing them to carry out other duties, such as advisers, guards, cooks, staff, assassins, spies, bed warmers and many other things. The initial start of the Family was the rest of a genetic engineering and Eugenics program that created us. The end result was a being that was smarter, faster, longer lasting and stronger than a normal Human with much greater physical beauty as well. Since that time, Servant families, as we have become known as, have sprung up among the other twenty worlds of the Coalition. We regularly trade gene-stocks to improve upon our genetics while also trading information on how to enhance ourselves further to better suit those that we serve." The more she explained, the more excited and smug Jan'sha became as she considered the woman before her more thoroughly, probing gently with her Biotics to note the different density of flesh that the woman had.

"And the reason that you wish to swear fealty to me? Is that simply a tradition that came about from the constant rise and fall of Warlords?" Jan'sha asked, getting a nod that did interesting things to the woman's chest.

"Yes, My Lady. It was simply a pragmatic choice. While we are breed for loyalty and submissiveness towards those we swear fealty towards, when the current Warlord falls, it is only the his generation that goes with him, those that remain are duty-bound to swear fealty towards those that have gained power. As is the traditions of our Family." Nyrian explained simply as Jan'sha hummed to herself consideringly. This was turning out better than she thought.

"And the other families from the other planets? Since I conquered them, does that mean that they will swear fealty to myself as well?" Jan'sha asked, slightly curious as she rubbed her thighs together slightly before forcing herself to still.

"Yes, My Lady." Jan'sha smirked openly at that answer as she glanced up at the ceiling for a moment.

"Swear your loyalty to me." Jan'sha commanded as Nyrian rose from the seat within a moment before bending one knee and kneeling before the Asari.

"By the accords of the Family of Brexx, I swear myself, and the Family, to our service. We are your tools to mold as you see fit, your servants, yours to do with as you wish, this, I swear as Head of the Family of Brexx." The Oath was short, but one could feel the weight it carried as it was spoke aloud by the Human woman, Jan'sha smiled at that, feeling a new sense of power as she watched the Human rise from the ground.

"So... Now, I can command you to do anything I wish?" She asked innocently, her expression being too innocent to be true.

"Yes, My Lady, you may command myself and the Family of Brexx to do anything you wish." Nyrian offered a slight smile, clearly giving the impression that she knew where this was going as Jan'sha gave her next orders.

"Take off all your clothes then come here and sit on my lap with your back to me." Jan'sha commanded as Nyrian moved to obey, raising her hands up before grabbing the piece of fabric that wrapped around the back of her neck, a moment later and the fabric feel away, revealing a small zip between the layers. Jan'sha only absently noted it as she watched Nyrian come towards her, a swing in her hips that caused her entire body to move as her perky tits shifted and jiggled with every step. Her rosy-red nipples proudly on display on her perky tits while her lower lips glisten with a promise of things to come, as she approached, the sway increased in size ever so slightly before she was a step away from Jan'sha. With that step, she turned on the spot before planting her firm, yet smooth ass on to the Asari's lap before leaning back slightly.

With the beautiful servant in her lap, Jan'sha smirked as she mentally ordered one of her implants to activate. A moment later, she noticed the difference as Nyrian let out a gentle moan from having skin contact with her legs. The implant in question was the injection system created by her sisters, Esaley and Larahin, it worked by releasing a high number of barb-like structures that would inject a target with a payload of choice. The augment could be loaded with any number of payloads ranging from anesthetics' to aphrodisiacs, the latter of which was what was currently loaded into Jan'sha's own Barb Injector, as the augment was called. The down side of it was also rather simple, each barb could only carry a small amount of a liquid, requiring either multiple injections over a period of time or many at the same time. As such, for every squared centimetre of skin on her body, there were roughly 100 barbs, however, that number was increased for select areas of the Asari body. For the hands, the number of barbs per squared centimetre was increased to 900 barbs, the lips had over 1,600 per squared centimetre while the tongue had 2,500 per squared centimetre. Of course, the most happened to be present in the birth canal, 4,900 per squared centimetre.

Still, even without being exposed to massive amounts of their payload, Nyrian was already feeling the effects as her eyes dilated to pin-pricks as she leaned back slightly, her nipples going hard as diamonds while her lower lips started glistening lightly, occasional drops of liquid dropping to the floor as Jan'sha watched with a smirk of utter satisfaction and smugness.

"Wow, I've not even touched you and your already dripping on the floor... I wonder what will happen when the _fun begins..._ " Jan'sha whispered as she leaned forwards, breathing into the woman's ear as she seemed to shiver slightly in anticipation and bliss at the cold feeling against her skin. Leaning forwards, Jan'sha started to have her fun as her hands moved onwards, placing themselves by her hips before gliding up Nyrain's sides. The moment that the Asari's hands made contact, the Human shuddered in bliss as liquid seemed to explode from between her legs, missing Jan'sha's legs but splashing on the floor even as the Human turned utterly boneless from the experience.

"Tsk, tsk... You've made quite a mess, Pet, but I think I can find it in myself to forgive you." Nyrian continued to shudder with bliss and pleasure as Jan'sha traced her hands further up the Brexx Head's body, sliding them up the sides of her body, under the arms before using her hands to cup the impressive bust of the Brexx member, lifting up the individual tits before allowing them to drop slightly, each time reducing Nyrian further and further into a boneless, moaning heap.

"Tell me, Pet, how does this feel?" The Asari asked with a wicked smile as she kept playing, kneading and squeezing the massive breasts for her own entertainment as she grasped the massive mounds of flesh between her fingers, said fingers easily disappearing within the marshmallow-like flesh.

"Ah! I-it... Oh!... It FeeEEEeelss... Oh oh Please!?... It feels so good!" Nyrian shouted as her mind was overloaded with bliss with each squeeze of her breasts as Jan'sha only smirked smugly at the current situation of her Pet.

"Good..." The Asari spoke as she leaned forwards, earning another moan of bliss as her hot breath tickled Nyrian's neck even as one of her hands let go of the Human's breasts and started to glide downwards. Gently, Jan'sha planted a kiss on the crook of Nyrian's neck, the result of which was instantaneous, resulting in the Human suddenly shooting up, her back straight even as her pupils had all but disappeared into little more than tiny, black dots that were barely visible. Reaching down, Jan'sha felt between the woman's legs and felt the veritable waterfall of warm liquid that flowed from her lower lips even as she reached down and pinched the servant's clit between two of her nails, drawing another gasp of bliss even as her other hand tightened around her breast. Slowly, Jan'sha lowered her other hand further even as she tugged and played with Nyrian's hardened nipple, pinching it between her nails as she nibbled away at the Human's neck, drawing more gasps of utter bliss from the woman.

"Now... How does _this_ feel...?" Jan'sha asked as she slide her hand down, cupping Nyrian's core as a finger slide within the larger woman before sliding around, covering the inside of her core with barbs, each containing a small amount of a potent aphrodisiac. Jan'sha smirked as she felt Nyrian fall further into her, leaning back further even as her body turned into little more than a heap of flesh that was only being held up thanks to the Asari's ministrations and support. However, the War Ascended was far from finished, or satisfied, as she leaned back into her chair before applying her Biotics to the matter.

Unseen, but not undetected, by Nyrian, her wrists were suddenly pulled up along with her legs being straightened out, a moment later and the panting form of Nyrian Brexx was floating in the air, spinning around as Jan'sha lazily got up from the sofa and stalked over to her, a smirk on her face as she looked at the larger woman. Said woman had been unable to do much more than pant after Jan'sha had slide her hand inside of her pussy and had been only held up by the power of the Asari's Biotics. Now, however, Jan'sha had decided that it was time to stop toying with the poor woman and seal things up, hence what happened next.

Nyrian was suddenly forced back after being spun around, fired back into the sofa before her arms and legs were bound in rings of Stasis-locked air, her legs spread as wide as they could go while her knees bent so that her feet touched the floor. Her back was straight against the back of the sofa while her arms were forced along the top of it, her neck and back straight while something bound her neck tightly. A moment later, that pressure was gone before it was replaced by the cold feeling of metal pressing into her skin tightly, looking down, one could see as metal seemed to flow out of the ground and walls of the chamber before wrapping around the woman at the ankles, knees, waist, elbows, wrists and neck, binding her in place as Jan'sha looked on with a smirk, having stripped off her clothing while using a mixture of Shears and Smears to move the material around, forming it as she wished before locking it in place with another Stasis.

Now, clad in nothing, it was virtually impossible to not see the well built body of the Asari as her figure gleamed in the light of distant stars while her arms crossed under her own, DD-cup bust and pushing them up as the War Ascended advanced on her bound prize.

"Now then, Pet, I believe that that has been enough fun and games... With that out of the way, I think I'll get started on twisting you to suit my needs... After all, a Pet that does not obey it's Master requires... _Discipline_." Jan'sha stated as she climbed up, straddling the larger woman as her legs wrapped around Nyrian's waist, the contact being more than enough to draw a small moan of bliss from the Human's lips before more contact was made as Jan'sha leaned into, and over, Nyrian, pressing their chests together as the blue woman grabbed Nyrian's face with both hands, pulling it close as a wide smirk dominated her features as the two faces grew closer.

"Now... I think it is time that you learn just who you... _Belong_ to... _Embrace Eternity!_ " The last thing that Nyrian saw, even if she wouldn't remember it, was Jan'sha speaking before her eyes turned black and the world seemed to disappear into a miasma of heat, desire and utter, delicious, pleasure.

When Nyrian finally came back to consciousness, having been reprogrammed to serve only the Asari from now on, she would always beg her Goddess that she would be allowed more of the same treatment, feeling that such pleasure and bliss was more than enough of a reward to be considered a blessing from some far off God.

Or Goddess, in this case.

 **[Lemon Over! Please, carry on.]**

 **XXX**

"I trust that all preparations shall be made swiftly?" A voice spoke out softly from the gloom of the setting sun, a figure standing by the window to see the setting sun of New Thessia. Behind the figure was another, kneeling, figure belonging to Senior Justicar, and Everchosen, Samara as she answered with her head bowed towards the floor.

"It will be as you command it, High Ascended." She answered, seeing a small nod and smile out of the corner of her eye before what happened next as she clamped her mouth shut as she felt it, a small burst of pleasure emanating from her round, smooth ass. Samara said nothing as she allowed the pleasure to run through her body before fading away, a reward from the High Ascended for carrying out something to her specifications and doing so to the highest possible standards of those same specifications, not to mention either meeting Her deadlines or even being early. Samara still remembered when it had happened for the first time, having just completed her assignment to assist in the removal of the Criminal-Lords.

 _Invisible hands touching her skin, rubbing up and down her body. Fingers between her legs and something round and hard between her ass-cheeks as more hands rubbed over her thighs and feet. The further up one went on her body, the greater the pleasure as she felt like something was kneading and fondling her breasts as the nipples were turned hard then pinched and yanked around. She felt hot breath on her neck as tongues licked around her ear canal while mouths seemed to nibble away at her neck. And, to top it off, the High Ascended stood before her, kissing her gently on the lips with her tongue exploring Samara's mouth. That kiss had, no matter how simplistic the actions, had given her a toe curling reaction as, had her body not already been locked in place, she would have fallen to the ground in sheer bliss. Of course, that still said nothing of the molten fires that burned pleasantly through her body._

Samara subtly shook her head to bring herself back to reality as she considered her musings for a moment, a reminder of a simple system of reward that the Goddess gave out for those that had served her well, usually in the form of pleasure beyond imagining while other times, for those that had earned her favor, it could come in other forms. Samara was one such being that had earned her favor, having been granted with enhanced Biotic strength, an undying body and virtually unlimited endurance to hunt down the enemies of the Goddess to wherever they might go. Of course, this also meant that she had surrendered all rights to her own body, her own mind and even her own soul, going even further than the standard Oaths that all Justicars swore. The Goddess could literally do anything to, or with, her and she would be Oath-bound to allow it, not that Samara had _ever_ considered trying to stop it. No, such things were rewards as they brought them into the attention of the Goddess and let them know that, even if their duty was its own reward, that the Goddess was watching and approved of what they had done.

Still, on the other scale of the spectrum was the disappointment that came should someone be unable to meet the Goddess's expectations for a task, being either unable to complete it or simply not completed it on time. Such things usually ended with the offenders merely being given a disappointed stare and asked for a promise to never do so again as the Goddess bore down on them with her disappointment, suffocating them. Samara had yet to experience it, but those that had had sworn themselves to Oaths soon afterwards to never do such a thing again, else they would ritually kill themselves to remove the shame from the Sovereignty.

"Good, you may go..." Samara nodded as she heard that, going to rise from the ground before suddenly finding that her body was locked in place, a sudden reminder flashed through her mind as the Goddess turned to look at her with a glint of amusement in her eyes and a wide grin as Samara suddenly understood what had happened, but was given very little time to consider what followed. "... After I'm done with you, of course."

Then, Samara suddenly found herself unable to think straight as blissful pleasure exploded throughout her body even as she fell backwards, hitting her back against the floor even as she absently heard footsteps approaching with the click of heels against the floor. She felt hands reaching inside of her Hardsuit before making contact with her skin.

Everything after that was just a blur of pleasure, bliss and the taste of milk, cream and honey.

 **XXX**

I grinned impishly to myself as I watched the Justicar Samara stagger out of the room, her mind still filled with a thick haze of pleasure as she tried not to walk right into a wall, assisted by her own Biotics while I watched with amusement at her plight, sometimes increasing the haze while other times reducing it. I knew that Samara couldn't notice it since she was too far gone to pay any attention to such things while staggering back to her own chamber on the lower levels of my tower, but even then, I knew that such things weren't likely to happen when I manipulated someone through the Link.

Speaking of which, I searched the Link as I looked towards my first daughter, Jan'sha, as it seemed that she had already claimed her spoils of conquest, or, rather, they had sworn themselves to her in a rather surprising twist of fate. Already, Jan'sha had dominated and completely subjugated the Head of one of the apparently many Houses that wished to bind themselves to her and her House. I could even feel this Head of the Brexx family within the Link, a new addition to the Link that had come with time, allowing me to look through the minds of those that had been Melded with sufficiently, usually through a deep Meld, like that used to effectively brand the woman, Nyrian Brexx, to the service of my daughter.

Still, even as I gave a quiet chuckle at that, along with how Jan'sha was planning to brag about it to Larahin over getting a better quality of servant than my third daughter, I moved onwards to other matters. Namely, my plans for the artificial birthing and cloning facility. Already, plans were in motion as my Justicars moved to gather all that was needed for me while I just sat back and watched things progress. Already, in the aftermath of the 'conquest', many were getting back to work and looking for ways to allow the population to boom, something I was already taking care of, but I could discuss that with my daughters later, only after I had made both one for their usage and one for my own.

Of course, even as I watched, I was not idle. No, I was busy putting the University's worth of information to work as I started designing a number of things that I felt would be of use for the future, specifically, for my Blackhand. The first thing I looked at was a general gene-mod that I planned to have implanted into the normal population of the Sovereignty, designed to remove the possibility for Ardat-Yakshi, or any off-shoots, from being born naturally, along with another one that ensured that, within my Blackhand, the gene would not carry over to the next generation unless it was given a specific activator. It would ensure that I didn't have to worry about rogues, especially since I fully planned to ensure their dependence on me with a kill-gene that would activate after fifty years unless given a rather specific, highly complex, injection to prevent it.

Aside from that, I also worked on the technology needed to give them their weapons, abilities and strength. I fully planned for them to be better than normal Asari, even stronger than my own Daughters and only being weaker than myself, for that, I took their proposed DNA and twisted it as I pleased, resulting in something that, while still Asari, was rather... _Different_.

The Blackhand Asari would be stronger, able to bend Titanium bars with their bare hands while their endurance and stamina would be second only to myself with their senses allowing them to detect anything around them. The tiniest of vibrations, the faintest flicker of Bio-electrical impulses and the most masked of scents, nothing would be able to hide from them while anything that tried to hide from them would be crushed under the power of their physical strength or Biotic power. For their Biotics, I planned out what I was going to do rather carefully as I ran calculations to ensure that the process would work, having them birthed within an Eezo-tainted liquid within the artificial wombs while Nanites worked to lace their bodies with even more. By the time that was expected to be done, I fully expected them to be capable of functioning as the Drive Core of a Dreadnought if it really came down to it, along with having the control to even take the ship to FTL if needed.

Their armor was another point I was working on, a Biological armor to compliment their Nano-threading and Blackware Nanonics. The armor I had planned was going to be organic in nature, an extension of themselves that used a mixture of Bionetic and Nanonic technologies to protect the wearer, including multiple, stand-alone Biotic nodes that would be linked together to form complex Biotic Barriers, Kinetic plates and Impact barriers to ensure that they could shrug off any kind of impact. Not to mention a passive Channel to protect against energy-based attacks along with a series of Nodes linked to a miniature series of nerve bundles that would trigger to become a skin-tight shell that could be triggered in the blink of an eye to block attacks that might have gotten through the other defences. Over the surface, the armor was going to be covered with high-strength bio-ceramics and bio-polymers with a Nano-threading reinforcement system to ensure that next to nothing was capable of killing them, and anything that came close would be adapted to and healed thanks to the Blackware and Nano-Threading.

I fully intended for my Blackhand to be virtually unstoppable, unflinching killers that would follow my commands with neither hesitation or regret. Though, I did decide to create a Bionetic augment that they could use to let them Meld, if only to ensure they didn't kill everyone they Melded with, if only to stave off suspicion on them for any 'Unexplained' deaths.

It would be the work of a lifetime, but, fortunately for me, I had a few dozen lifetimes to work with in terms of time.

I'd be done within a few decades, half a century. Tops.

 **XXX**

I had to admit, ten years after conquering those twenty planets and removing the populations, sorting them before having them relocated back to New Thessia to serve in one fashion or another, and I could honestly say that I did _not_ expect this.

What 'this' was, was a parade started in the veneration of the Goddess with a statue moving down the middle of the precession that looked suspiciously like me, having the same figure and the same facial markings that made me think that someone was trying to set me up as the incarnation of a Goddess. Of course, that wasn't the only thing that I had noticed, things were starting to change within the Link as well, especially as I felt burst of... Energy, for lack of a better term, rushing through it and heading straight for me as I felt every connection within the Link. Every Meld created a new connection for me to use, allowing me to peek within the minds of those that had been connected to, however, it took greater effort to look through those minds than with an Asari's, I figured it was due to the forced connection being placed within them, but hadn't had a way to test that due to the metaphysical nature of the Link.

Anyway, these burst of energy traveled along the connections like balls of gold surrounded by a sphere of dark blue/purple before reaching me at the nexus of the Link. Each time I felt one of these orbs enter me within the Link, I felt something change within me, a shift that changed as more energy reached me, no matter how insignificant it was. I felt my strength growing, my Biotics gaining power while my body changed as well, growing a tad bit taller, any imperfection slowly being removed while anything that might enhance me was either further enhanced or added. After a time, I started seeing other things as well, solid lines of gold outlines in the same colours as Biotics that came from the points of the Link that I knew to be my Justicars, a steady flow that seemed to increase as new members joined.

And then came the next surprise, the fact that with each orb that reached me within the Link, the more I learned of the people that those orbs came from, and I never forgot those things, being able to recall them in an instant.

Of course, the fact that a religion had recently been altered and started to venerate a figure known as the Goddess that happened to look a lot like me rendered my conclusion of what was happening rather easy to guess. The fact that I happened to learn that all those orbs were coming from worshippers of this religion simply made it easier to come to said conclusion.

Somehow, I was gaining power from the faith of those that seemed to venerate my image.

And so, for the last ten years, I had felt myself grow stronger from the near constant worship, adding to me like a grand reserve that would never fill. I had little doubt that, if I decided to walk through the streets of the city, that everyone would fall to their knees and pray and worship me, hence why I decided to avoid such things, usually either only going out while hidden in some way while other times just watching through the eyes of another. Still, learning other tricks of the Link was useful.

I could now channel this reserve into anyone within the Link that had a sufficient connection to me, such as a Justicar, giving them strength and abilities that were, normally, impossible. I could easily manage requests from dozens of them at the same time and still carry on doing whatever I wanted, aware of their requests but capable of responding automatically without shifting my attention, while still giving each request my full attention. That particular trait reminded me of the Queen Administrator Shard from Worm, though, I knew the reference would be lost on my Justicars, who called those members capable of channeling my power as 'Godtalkers', as they could ask for my assistance and be graced with a fraction of my power.

Honestly, I didn't know what was more terrifying, the fact that I was now subject to veneration or the fact that I actually enjoyed having so much power amassed so quickly through means that I didn't truly understand.

"High Ascended, forgive my impertinence, but may I inquire as to what has garnered a grievance with you?" I heard a voice from behind me, knowing who it was and not even surprised in the slightest as to who it was as I glance back to see Samara standing by the door, now the High Justicar and Senior Godtalker among the Justicar Order. Her armor had changed since taking such a position. Gone was the old Hardsuit that reminded me so much of the ME2 outfit and, in its place was a skin-tight black suit made from tiny, scale-like plates with lines of glowing blue circuits visible crossing over multiple plates to trace lines up her legs, around her waist, over her impressive chest, around her neck and down her arms. From her back, a pair of cloth sheets came, dangling from either shoulder with both having more of the esoteric circuits stitched into them with the same Eezo-impregnated fabric. The entire outfit would have been considered a work of art if it had been made by even the best artisans of the Sovereignty, but, since it was apparently 'Gifted upon the chosen Speakers of the Goddess', such an outfit was looked upon with a religious reverence while the wearer was looked in a similar light to what ancient man must have seen when they looked at Jesus after finding out he was the Son of God.

"Nothing of particular note, Samara, though I do wonder if such festivals are truly needed. I understand that they wish to celebrate their blessings, but I feel that such things might be going a bit overboard." I stated as I glanced back at the celebrations, supposedly to give thanks to the Goddess for granting the Asari another chance to live upon the soil of New Thessia after the destruction of Thessia in what was only called 'The Cataclysm'. Apparently, from what I had gathered from the 'Holy Book of the Goddess' the Cataclysm had come as close as one could get to the end of the world that it really made no difference as, in the book.

One quote I quite liked actually explained it as: 'The Star of Thessia turned black with the corruption of the vile and Demons roamed the lands, ignoring the pleas of the Goddess, forsaking Her for their own pale indulgences while leaving nothing but pain, suffering, hatred and rage behind them in a self-perpetuating cycle that left the lands dead and the people who worked them as husks of their former selves, lacking any moral fiber and seeking only power for themselves. Finally, the Goddess, resigned to the fate of those that had forsaken Her, gathered the worthy and took them to a new haven among the stars while the Star of Thessia finally burst, destroying the corrupt and vile as it erased all in a wave of fire and justice. And so, the Goddess carried on, carrying those pure ones with Her before setting them down on the new lands that would come to be their homes for forever more, a New Thessia born by the will of the Goddess.'

I had actually searched out the person who wrote that through the Link just to figure out what the hell they had been thinking while writing it. Turns out that she was a fanatic that was too young to join the Justicar Order and was a big follower of the religion that they practiced, i.e. mine.

"Perhaps no, High Ascended, but they wish to give you thanks for preventing the death of the Asari people. That such things have evolved to such spirited celebrations is simply a side effect of their belief and enjoyment in their existence, their faith in you and the unity of the People." Samara stated simply as I nodded with a reluctant nod since, in truth, I couldn't deny it since I, technically, had, at least, within this universe.

"I am aware, but I still feel that such veneration of myself is nothing but an excuse for them to stroke my ego, which, I will admit feels good, but I do not enjoy it to such an extent to wish to have such grand displays in taking place in my name." I stated simply, not really bothering to turn around as I felt Samara through the Link, her every muscle twitch, every thought and every beat of her Heart. I could just as easily end her life as I could change it for the better through the Link, but decided not to as to it served no purpose, let alone the simple fact that I had grown fond of Samara, if only because of her calm council and the fact that she was able to speak to me, at least, semi-ritually, something other members of her Order had yet to manage, something that my own Daughters were starting to be drawn into as their own Houses grew back to pre-conquest numbers. I already had plans for the Cloning and Birthing facilities which were under construction, that would be done within the next five years.

"It is, as you say, High Ascended." Samara offered back, the closest that she could, or rather would, come to saying 'whatever you say, Boss'.

I felt fully justified when, a moment later, Samara suddenly collapsed to the ground, gasping for air as her thighs pressed together and her arms pulled close to her chest, hands trying to peel through her armor and fondle her own breasts.

Being a Goddess had its perks.

 **XXX**

Awareness came within moments as the liquid that kept her suspended drained away, causing her formerly immobile form to drop heavily to the ground. Normally, had someone been suspended in a liquid, unable to use their muscles for anything for long periods of time, they would be incapable of using them and would have fallen face first to the ground, she did not. Her augments flaring within her, a key part of her being coming into play as she landed lightly on the balls of her feet, completely ignoring her own nudity as various needles pulled themselves away from her body and the glass screen before her pulled away to allow her to see the outside world, beyond her pod.

Instincts flared within her being as she felt a need to move, to go a certain way as she stepped on to the lukewarm, metal flooring of a white corridor lined with more pods, some empty while others still had more beings like her sleeping within them. It was strange even as she observed them, noting how they all looked so peaceful yet knowing that they were learning, a steady stream of information and knowledge being streamed into their minds, just as she, herself, had undergone before awakening, her mind still filled with the residue of the download as some things hadn't fully settled, but were doing so quickly, clicking into place with every step she took.

Following the twisting corridors decorated in white, silver and tasteful blues, she came to an elevator before it closed shut behind her, sealing her in, yet she felt no need to panic even as she absently noted the lack of controls within the enclosed container. Silence rained within the container for a moment before a steady hum filled it, a feeling of acceleration was present before it disappeared as she felt herself moving upwards at speed, her senses helping her calculate just how fast she was moving. She didn't get much time to consider what to make so such things before feeling the sudden deceleration of the elevator, slowing down before coming to a gentle stop that should have plastered her against the ceiling of the elevator. Once the metal container came to a stop, the door opened with utter silence before she looked out, following her instincts before walking forwards.

Once out of the lift, the door closed silently behind her as she glanced over a shoulder and noted the sheer lack of any kind of seam, or any way to even note that a door was even present as she advanced, coming to a set of massive, heavily decorated, wooden doors, they opened as she approached and let her slip into the room beyond before she froze stiff as a board and couldn't help but stand at attention.

The room itself was small, yet tasteful with floor to ceiling windows opposite the door while most of the room was a pearl white with silver and blue trim, concealed lighting helping to illuminate the room with a gently light that seemed to soak into everything before fading, leaving little in the way of shadows for any form of intruder to hide within. In the middle of the room were the only two pieces of furniture, a pair of sofas and a single table between them. The sofas were made of finely cured. black leather with lines of blue trimmed into it with esoteric patterns that, had she not been who she was, burned her eyes and mind with their sheer presence. The table itself was made of even more finely crafted wood with a golden inlay that glittered in the light, detailing a complex chain of symbols that translated to mean 'good fortune' and 'Blessings of the Goddess'.

The room absolutely screamed of the wealth of the owner of it, however, the thing that captured her attention the most, even as she stepped into the room, was the owner of said room, the sole occupant, herself.

She sat on the left side sofa, her body covered by a blue and cyan dress that had a long cut taken from the bottom of the ankle-length dress all the way back to the waist, highlighting long, smooth, well muscled and utterly perfect legs that she had difficulty looking away from as her eyes roamed further up her body. The skin tight dress left little to the imagination as a wide hips, a thin waist and a strongly defined set of abs showed themselves off while the massive breasts stood on her chest, defiant as they refused to give in to the demands of Gravity. Looking further up, however, at the face of this person was more than enough for her to finally realise who this individual was.

Her face was perfect, lacking any kind of imperfection as purple markings framed her face while the left corner of her lips quirked up while her left eye ridge rose gently from its normal position, bright blue, almost blindingly so, eyes looked at her with a mixture of amusement and interest as the owner of the room, and probably the building, watched her watcher.

It didn't take a moment following this for her to drop to her knees, head bowed and her voice low with reverence.

"High Goddess. How may this one serve your will?" The words came flooding into her mind, unknown until that moment, but somehow feeling completely natural for her to say as her husky tone filled the silence of the room. If anything, her actions caused the High Goddess to crack a smile, something that she took as a feat of great satisfaction as to bring such an expression to her face.

"Rise, my child, I assure you, all will be explained in time." The voice that spoke was smooth, calming and utterly entrancing as she felt herself being drawn upwards by the sound of that voice alone. A slight chuckle followed as she realised that she was looking at the High Goddess without permission before slamming her head back down, locking her gaze to the floor as best as she could. This only drew another chuckle from the High Goddess.

"Now, now, dear, you have no need for such actions. In fact, you are here exactly because I require your services... Morinth, First of my Blackhand."

The now-named Morinth looked up for the first time, suddenly seeing her Goddess standing before her, seemingly cloaked in power even if she felt no Biotics radiating from the older being. Even then, it mattered little, especially since the Goddess could probably command entire armies to die for her through presence alone.

Just as she would gladly do so, if give the command.

 **XXX**


	8. Note of discontinuation Sorry

Alright, first of all, I'd like to apologies to all those currently waiting for an update of this story, mostly because, I'm afraid, one isn't coming.

I might try something in the future, and, indeed, I've got a few ideas, but none of them are currently in the works. Once more, sorry to those that expected another chapter.


End file.
